Showing papers by "Domingo Cantero published in 2015"
TL;DR: The kinetic model considered a Haldane-type equation to describe sulfide and nitrite inhibitions, a non-competitive inhibition to reflect the effect of sulfide on the elemental sulfur oxidation besides single-step denitrification since no nitrite was produced during the biological assays.
Abstract: Monitoring the biological activity in biotrickling filters is difficult since it implies estimating biomass concentration and its growth yield, which can hardly be measured in immobilized biomass systems. In this study, the characterization of a sulfide-oxidizing nitrate-reducing biomass obtained from an anoxic biotrickling filter was performed through the application of respirometric and titrimetric techniques. Previously, the biomass was maintained in a continuous stirred tank reactor under steady-state conditions resulting in a growth yield of 0.328 ± 0.045 g VSS/g S. To properly assess biological activity in respirometric tests, abiotic assays were conducted to characterize the stripping of CO2 and sulfide. The global mass transfer coefficient for both processes was estimated. Subsequently, different respirometric tests were performed: (1) to solve the stoichiometry related to the autotrophic denitrification of sulfide using either nitrate or nitrite as electron acceptors, (2) to evaluate the inhibition caused by nitrite and sulfide on sulfide oxidation, and (3) to propose, calibrate, and validate a kinetic model considering both electron acceptors in the overall anoxic biodesulfurization process. The kinetic model considered a Haldane-type equation to describe sulfide and nitrite inhibitions, a non-competitive inhibition to reflect the effect of sulfide on the elemental sulfur oxidation besides single-step denitrification since no nitrite was produced during the biological assays.
62 citations
TL;DR: This methodology can be a useful tool to disclose the metabolic pathways that are more susceptible to manipulation in order to obtain higher molar yields of hydrogen and ethanol using glycerol as main carbon source in multiple E. coli mutants.
Abstract: Earth’s climate is warming as a result of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion. Bioenergy, which includes biodiesel, biohydrogen and bioethanol, has emerged as a sustainable alternative fuel source. For this reason, in recent years biodiesel production has become widespread but this industry currently generates a huge amount of glycerol as a by-product, which has become an environmental problem in its own right. A feasible possibility to solve this problem is the use of waste glycerol as a carbon source for microbial transformation into biofuels such as hydrogen and ethanol. For instance, Escherichia coli is a microorganism that can synthesize these compounds under anaerobic conditions. In this work an experimental procedure was established for screening E. coli single mutants to identify strains with enhanced ethanol and/or H2 productions compared to the wild type strain. In an initial screening of 150 single mutants, 12 novel strains (gnd, tdcE, rpiA nanE, tdcB, deoB, sucB, cpsG, frmA, glgC, fumA and gadB) were found to provide enhanced yields for at least one of the target products. The mutations, that improve most significantly the parameters evaluated (gnd and tdcE genes), were combined with other mutations in three engineered E. coli mutant strains in order to further redirect carbon flux towards the desired products. This methodology can be a useful tool to disclose the metabolic pathways that are more susceptible to manipulation in order to obtain higher molar yields of hydrogen and ethanol using glycerol as main carbon source in multiple E. coli mutants.
24 citations
TL;DR: It was found that the reductive branch is the more relevant pathway for the aim of this work, with malate playing a central role and the putative C4‐transporter dcuD mutant improved the target product yields.
Abstract: Biodiesel has emerged as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels; however, the low price of glycerol feed-stocks generated from the biodiesel industry has become a burden to this industry. A feasible alternative is the microbial biotransformation of waste glycerol to hydrogen and ethanol. Escherichia coli, a microorganism commonly used for metabolic engineering, is able to biotransform glycerol into these products. Nevertheless, the wild type strain yields can be improved by rewiring the carbon flux to the desired products by genetic engineering. Due to the importance of the central carbon metabolism in hydrogen and ethanol synthesis, E. coli single null mutant strains for enzymes of the TCA cycle and other related reactions were studied in this work. These strains were grown anaerobically in a glycerol-based medium and the concentrations of ethanol, glycerol, succinate and hydrogen were analysed by HPLC and GC. It was found that the reductive branch is the more relevant pathway for the aim of this work, with malate playing a central role. It was also found that the putative C4-transporter dcuD mutant improved the target product yields. These results will contribute to reveal novel metabolic engineering strategies for improving hydrogen and ethanol production by E. coli.
17 citations