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.

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.

A method of using electricity to produce methane includes maintaining a culture comprising living methanogenic microorganisms at a temperature above 50° C. in a reactor having a first chamber and a second chamber separated by a proton permeable barrier, the first chamber comprising a passage between an inlet and an outlet containing at least a porous electrically conductive cathode, the culture, and water, and the second chamber comprising at least an anode. The method also includes coupling electricity to the anode and the cathode, supplying carbon dioxide to the culture in the first chamber, and collecting methane from the culture at the outlet of the first chamber.

The methane production plant (10) comprises: an electric energy source (11) suitable for supplying electrical energy, an electrolyser (14) fed with the electrical energy supplied by the electric energy source, suitable for supplying hydrogen in gas form, an atmospheric carbon dioxide capture device (16) suitable for supplying carbon dioxide and water, a methanation reactor (15) suitable for receiving the hydrogen supplied by the electrolyser, water and the carbon dioxide that are supplied by the atmospheric carbon dioxide capture device, and suitable for producing methane, and solar collectors (19) and a means for heat transfer from the solar collectors to the carbon dioxide capture device (16).

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.

[Object]To provide a method and a system capable of, when a predetermined amount of biomass raw material is to be stored, controlling fermentation of the biomass raw material and further storing the biomass raw material safely for a predetermined period of time.

[Solving Means]The biomass raw material storage method of the present invention. is configured such that it includes a raw material analysis step of analyzing an amount of nutrients contained in an accepted organic energy resource, a raw material storage tank selection step of selecting, from among a plurality of raw material storage tanks, a raw material storage tank for storing the analyzed organic energy resource as biomass raw material, in reference to a result of the analysis and according to the amounts of nutrients contained in the organic energy resource, and a raw material fermentation controlling step of controlling fermentation of the biomass raw material in the raw material storage tank in which the biomass raw material is stored.

The inventive biorefinery system and method accepts municipal solid waste, sewage sludges, and/or ag-wastes and processes it through three primary conversion unit operations to produce a variety of value-added products. In a preferred embodiment, the three primary conversion units are gasification, thermal depolymerization or torrefaction/pyrolysis, and biotreatment.

The present invention is directed to a transgenic maize plant or a part thereof comprising as transgene a nucleic acid capable of expressing a cell wall invertase or a functional part thereof, preferably a Chenopodium rubrum cell wall invertase or a functional part thereof, wherein as a result of the expression of the cell wall invertase or a functional part thereof the transgenic maize plant exhibits an enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress and/or an increased yield, to a method of producing such transgenic maize plant, to method of enhancing the tolerance to abiotic stress of a maize plant and/or of increasing yield potential of a maize plant, to a nucleic acid capable of expressing a cell wall invertase or a functional part thereof, preferably a Chenopodium rubrum cell wall invertase or a functional part thereof, to a vector comprising such nucleic acid, the use of the nucleic acid or vector for enhancing the tolerance to abiotic stress of a maize plant, for increasing yield potential of a maize plant and/or for protecting a maize plant against abiotic stress, and to a method for production of ethanol or methane from transgenic maize plant or a part thereof of the invention.

This present invention provides for a genetically modified host cell, or a cell-free reaction system, and related methods and materials for the biocatalytic production of an alkyl lactones from a hydroxy fatty acid, or natural alkyl lactones and esters from sugars using non-natural combinations of enzymes.