Methods and systems for growing microbial mass
A method of growing a microbial mass includes collecting biowaste from an organism, the biowaste comprising a first amount of water and a first amount of solid-phase; receiving the collected biowaste in a first reactor; treating the collected biowaste in the first reactor using a first set of operating parameters for a first period of time to dissolve at least a part of solid-phase inorganic nutrients into the first amount of water to form a growth media; washing the formed growth media, wherein said washing includes sterilization, separation and cleaning steps; providing the formed growth media to a second reactor including an inoculum of microbial mass; collecting carbon dioxide locally from an atmosphere; collecting a second amount of water present in the atmosphere and splitting the collected second amount of water into oxygen and hydrogen gas; providing the collected carbon dioxide and the split oxygen and hydrogen gas to the second reactor; growing a microbial mass in the second reactor under a second set of operating parameters; and harvesting the grown microbial mass from the second reactor to produce food for consumption by the organism. Reference is made to the Identification of the Microorganism, with the identification reference given by the Depositor SoF1, having the Accession number given by the INTERNATIONAL DEPOSITORY AUTHORITY, VTT E-193585, received on Jun. 11, 2019.
1 . A method of growing a microbial mass, the method comprising
a) collecting biowaste from an organism, the biowaste comprising a first amount of water and a first amount of solid-phase;
b) receiving the collected biowaste in a first reactor;
c) treating the collected biowaste in the first reactor using a first set of operating parameters for a first period of time to dissolve at least a part of solid-phase inorganic nutrients into the first amount of water to form a growth media;
d) washing the formed growth media, wherein said washing includes sterilization, separation and cleaning steps;
e) providing the formed growth media to a second reactor comprising an inoculum of microbial mass;
f) collecting carbon dioxide locally from an atmosphere;
g) collecting a second amount of water present in the atmosphere and splitting the collected second amount of water into oxygen and hydrogen gas;
h) providing the collected carbon dioxide and the split oxygen and hydrogen gas to the second reactor;
i) growing a microbial mass in the second reactor under a second set of operating parameters; and
j) harvesting the grown microbial mass from the second reactor to produce food for consumption by the organism.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the amount of water in the growth media is adjusted by
adding a third amount of water to the first reactor if the amount of water in the growth media is less than 20 weight percent of the growth media, and
adding more solid-phase if the amount of water in the growth media is more than 20 weight percent of the growth media.
3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first set of operating parameters comprises of
a temperature inside of the first reactor, wherein the temperature is at least 190 degrees Celsius; and
a pH of the growth media, wherein the pH is less than 4.
4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises stirring the biowaste in the first reactor at a speed of at least 100 RPM.
5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first period of time is one hour to 18 hours.
6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein biowaste comprises feces and urine and the first amount of water is 50-90 weight percent of the biowaste.
7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises extracting carbon dioxide from at least a part of the growth media.
8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the inoculum of microbial biomass comprises at least one isolated microbe, wherein said microbe has ability to grow using hydrogen gas as energy source and carbon dioxide as an inorganic carbon source.
9 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein the microbes for the inoculum are selected from a group of: Clostridium ljungdahlii, Saccharomyces cerevisiae , Knallgas bacteria, genus Caminibacter , genus Aquifex , genus Paracoccus , genus Xanthobacter , genus Hydrogenomonas, methanotrophs, methanogens , genus Geobacter , genus Cyanobacterium , genus Acetobacterium , genus Oscillospira , genus Pleomorphomonas.
10 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the growing of the microbial mass comprises culturing a bacterial strain of the genus Xanthobacter in continuous culture with hydrogen as energy source and an inorganic carbon source, wherein the inorganic carbon source comprises carbon dioxide.
11 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the microbial mass comprises an isolated bacterial strain VTT-E-193585 or a derivative of VTT-E-193585 which has retained the ability to grow using hydrogen gas as energy source and carbon dioxide as the only carbon source.
12 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises collecting urea from the organism, providing the collected urea to a third reactor for a treatment thereof and providing the treated urea from the third reactor to the second reactor as an additional growth media component for the growth of microbial mass.
13 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the microbial mass is operable to recycle the biowaste and gases into food for consumption by the organism, and wherein the food is rich in at least one of: a protein, a carbohydrate, a fatty acid, an antioxidant, a fibre content.
14 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the growing of microbial mass occurs in non-gravitational field conditions, wherein said process comprising culturing at least one isolated microbe, comprising culturing said at least one isolated microbe in continuous culture with hydrogen as energy source and carbon dioxide as the inorganic carbon source.
15 . The method according to claim 14 , wherein the at least one isolated microbe is a bacterial strain of the genus Xanthobacter.
16 . The method according to claim 14 , wherein the isolated bacterial strain is a-VTT-E-193585 or a derivative of VTT-E-193585 which has retained the ability to grow using hydrogen gas as energy source and carbon dioxide as the only carbon source.