Project Info
*Direct Air Capture of Methane by Engineered Microbial Consortia
Nanette Boyle
nboyle@mines.edu
Methane has a much larger green house gas impact than CO2, but it is at much much lower concentrations in the atmosphere. This makes it difficult to difficult to remove without substantial input of energy. We will engineer a microbial consortia of a cyanobacteria and methanotroph to maximize the consumption of methane from air and convert it to biomass and other useful bioproducts
More Information:
Grand Challenge: Develop carbon sequestration methods
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167779908001716#:~:text=Engineering%20microbial%20consortia%3A%20a%20new%20frontier%20in%20synthetic%20biology,-Author%20links%20open&text=Microbial%20consortia%20are%20ubiquitous%20in,to%20assistance%20in%20food%20digestion.
Primary Contacts:
Nanette Boyle nboyle@mines.edu
Student Preparation
Qualifications
junior standing, some experience with matlab or python, some lab experience
TIME COMMITMENT (HRS/WK)
5
SKILLS/TECHNIQUES GAINED
Aseptic technique, metabolic modeling, python/matlab, culturing bacteria, perhaps some molecular biology
MENTORING PLAN
I will meet with the student weekly, they will attend monthly group meetings and present once during the semester. Their day to day interactions will be with the graduate student in the lab
PREFERRED STUDENT STATUS
Junior
Senior