A pretreatment method for producing a raw material of lycopene, comprising: uniformly mixing tomato peel residue with a fermenting agent, an antioxidant and an enzyme preparation, and subjecting the resultant to light-proof anaerobic fermentation. The present invention employs bacteria-enzyme-combined fermentation technology, which prolongs the storage period of wet tomato peel residue, and also destroys the cell wall of tomato peels, thus facilitating exaction of lycopene and improving the purity of lycopene extracted in the later stage.

A pretreatment method for producing a raw material of lycopene, comprising: uniformly mixing tomato peel residue with a fermenting agent, an antioxidant and an enzyme preparation, and subjecting the resultant to light-proof anaerobic fermentation. The present invention employs bacteria-enzyme-combined fermentation technology, which prolongs the storage period of wet tomato peel residue, and also destroys the cell wall of tomato peels, thus facilitating exaction of lycopene and improving the purity of lycopene extracted in the later stage.

A system and method for the production of microbial consortiums and by-product material is provided. A physical containment system comprising phase spaces arranged in a discrete order to favor specific biological reactions is also provided. Phase profiles and phase data sets include the pre-determined physical and biological parameters for the phase space transitions. Movement of material from one phase to the next is hydraulically balanced enabling working fluid to continuously move in a fixed direction and rate of flow. Continuous monitoring of phase profiles and phase data sets provide feedback to the system enabling alteration of the conditions in the system to control reactions therein.

The present invention relates to novel nucleic acid sequences encoding bacterial xylose isomerases that upon transformation of a eukaryotic microbial host cell, such as yeast, to confer to the host cell the ability of isomerising xylose to xylulose. The nucleic acid sequences encode xylose isomerases that originate from bacteria such as Eubacterium sp., Clostridium cellulosi and others. The invention further relates to fermentation processes wherein the transformed host cells ferment a xylose-containing medium to produce ethanol or other fermentation products.

An anaerobic digestion system may include a material grinding/pulping portion, a hydrolysis portion arranged downstream of the grinding portion, a multiple chamber anaerobic reactor arranged downstream from the hydrolysis portion and including a gas collection and reintroduction system, a collection system for collecting digestate and gas from the anaerobic reactor.

The present disclosure relates to recombinant microorganisms having an improved ethylene producing ability, methods of producing the same, and methods of producing ethylene. A benefit of the recombinant microorganisms and the methods disclosed herein can include increased production of ethylene from microbial cultures. An additional benefit can be the use of carbon dioxide to produce bio-ethylene useful as a feedstock for the production of plastics, textiles, and chemical materials, and for use in other applications. Another benefit of the methods and systems disclosed herein can include reduction of excess carbon dioxide from the environment.

The invention relates to a method for the biological in-situ methanation of CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2 in a bioreactor. The method includes feeding an organic substrate into the bioreactor wherein at least part of the organic substrate is converted to a biogas comprising methane and carbon dioxide by means of microorganisms. The organic substrate includes crude fiber and at least 0.15 kg of crude fiber per m.sup.3 bioreactor volume per day is fed into to the bioreactor. The bioreactor is operated at between about 20-45° C. H.sub.2 is fed to the CO.sub.2 into the bioreactor to produce methane.

Methods, microbial fuel cells and microbial consortia for generating electrical current are provided according to the present invention which include providing a microbial consortium to an anode chamber of a microbial fuel cell, wherein the microbial consortium includes: 1) an engineered methanogen that contains a heterologous nucleic acid sequence encoding methyl-coenzyme M reductase derived from an anaerobic methane oxidizer, 2) an exoelectrogen microbe that produces electrically-conductive appendages and/or one or more types of electron carrier, and 3) a sludge, methane-acclimated sludge, a sludge isolate component, a methane-acclimated sludge isolate component chosen from Paracoccus spp., Geotoga spp., Geobacter spp., Methanosarcina spp., Garciella spp., humic acids; or a combination of any two or more thereof.

An active solid state fermentation bioreactor for producing gases, liquid(s) or solids from gaseous or gaseous and liquid starting materials and a fermentation process using the reactor are disclosed, The bioreactor includes three major phases; a solid phase including the porous solid support, a liquid phase comprising liquid, and a gaseous phase. The solid phase includes a porous solid support, in which at least 20% of the pore volumes have a size resulting in a liquid suction of about 0.01 to about 0.1 bars if these pores are filled with liquid, the porous solid support is inoculated with desired micro-organisms, the volume of the gaseous phase is 20% to 60% of the volume of the bioreactor, and the liquid phase is at least 20% of the reactor volume, The unsaturated capillary conductivity of filling/packing solid material of the bioreactor is at least 0.1 cm/ h. The solid state fermentation bioreactor enables a large gas-liquid interface, in which the filling material has a good capillary conductivity despite the unsaturated state.

An active solid state fermentation bioreactor for producing gases, liquid(s) or solids from gaseous or gaseous and liquid starting materials and a fermentation process using the reactor are disclosed, The bioreactor includes three major phases; a solid phase including the porous solid support, a liquid phase comprising liquid, and a gaseous phase. The solid phase includes a porous solid support, in which at least 20% of the pore volumes have a size resulting in a liquid suction of about 0.01 to about 0.1 bars if these pores are filled with liquid, the porous solid support is inoculated with desired micro-organisms, the volume of the gaseous phase is 20% to 60% of the volume of the bioreactor, and the liquid phase is at least 20% of the reactor volume, The unsaturated capillary conductivity of filling/packing solid material of the bioreactor is at least 0.1 cm/ h. The solid state fermentation bioreactor enables a large gas-liquid interface, in which the filling material has a good capillary conductivity despite the unsaturated state.