Integration of Biogas Derived from Dark Fermentation and Anaerobic Digestion of Biowaste to Enhance Methanol Production by Methanotrophs

Biowaste-derived sugars or greenhouse gases, such as methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), can be used to generate eco-friendly biofuels, such as hydrogen (H2) or methanol. In the present study, enzyme-based rice straw (RS) hydrolysate was used to produce dark-fermentative (DF) biogas (H2 and CO2), which was subsequently integrated with biogas (CH4 and CO2) derived from anaerobic digestion (AD) to generate methanol via meth-anotrophs. First, DF of RS hydrolysate yielded 2.82 mol of H2/mol of hexose. Second, the integration of biogas derived from DF and AD in the presence of CH4 vectors yielded 13.8 mmol/L of methanol via methanotrophs. Moreover, under the repeated batch mode, 64.6 mmol/L of methanol was produced. This is the first report on the integration of biogas derived from AD and DF of biowaste to produce biomethanol. These findings may facilitate the development of a sustainable biowaste-based circular economy for producing biofuels.