Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Zappi, Mark E.

Committee Member

French, W. Todd

Committee Member

George, Clifford E.

Committee Member

Toghiani, Hossein

Committee Member

Brown, Lewis R.

Date of Degree

8-7-2004

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Chemical Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering

Abstract

In recent years economic, environmental, and strategic concerns over the use of petroleum resources have led to increased interest in renewable resources. Biomass gasification produces a synthesis gas composed of primarily carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide, which can be fermented into a variety of fuels and chemicals. This study evaluated the performance of a two-stage approach to batch synthesis gas fermentations. The first stage employs a rich medium optimized for cell growth, while the second stage is designed to maximize production of acetic acid from synthesis gas. This two-stage approach is hypothesized to be more metabolically efficient than previous single-stage designs. This study presents the evaluation of known acetic acid producing organisms described in the literature, and efforts to isolate a novel microbial catalyst for synthesis gas fermentations. Finally, new techniques were developed and implemented in order to develop a more effective system for batch synthesis gas fermentations.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/20186

Comments

acetic acid||synthesis gas||fermentation||homoacetogen

Download

Share

COinS