Method of electrically-assisting electroactive methane oxidizing bacteria to catalyze methane to produce methanol or formic acid

Abstract

The invention provides a method of electrically-assisting electroactive methane oxidizing bacteria to catalyze methane to produce methanol or formic acid. According to the method provided by the invention, the dehydrogenase activity of the electroactive methane oxidizing bacteria is controlled by a redox potential which is controlled by a microorganism electrolysis pool, and the activity and the stability of the electroactive methane oxidizing bacteria are maintained while methanol or formic acid, serving as a chemical product, is obtained; H<+> and electrons are produced while the electroactive methane oxidizing bacteria which are adhered to the surface of an anode of the microorganism electrolysis pool metabolize methane to producemethanol or formic acid, and H<+> and electrons are combined on the surface of the cathode under the action of electrically assisting and a cathode catalyst. The method is capable of solving the problems of synthesizing methanol or formic acid by traditional chemical reaction of high energy consumption and low efficiency of the cathode catalyst and preventing further deep oxidation of methanol and formic acid to produce CO2 in the process of bio-catalytically oxidizing methane to produce methanol or formic acid; according to the method provided by the invention, the whole reaction process is carried out under mild conditions and is environmentally friendly.

Description

Technical field [0001] The invention relates to a method for oxidizing methane to generate methanol or formic acid, in particular to a method for electrically assisting electroactive methane oxidizing bacteria to catalyze the generation of methanol or formic acid from methane. Background technique [0002] Methanol is widely used in various fields of the chemical industry and is an important organic chemical basic raw material. Methanol can be synthesized from methane, coal and heavy oil through a multi-step chemical reaction. So far, there is no chemical catalyst that can directly oxidize methane to methanol in one step. The existing synthesis method not only requires multi-step reactions, but also the reaction must be carried out at a high temperature of 900oC, and the selectivity and conversion rate of the reaction are very low. If the mercury catalytic system is used, the methane conversion rate at 180oC is about 43%, and the mercury catalytic system causes serious pollution...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

If you want to accumulate methanol or formic acid, you must inhibit its continued oxidation, so the research on biocatalytic synthesis of methanol or formic acid has not achieved satisfactory results

Images