Date of Award:

8-2013

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Biological Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Charles D. Miller (Committee Co-Chair), Ronald C. Sims (Committee Co-Chair)

Committee

Charles D. Miller

Committee

Ronald C. Sims

Committee

H. Scott Hinton

Committee

Issa Hamud

Committee

Jon Takemoto

Abstract

Developing renewable sources of energy is gaining interest due to limited supplies, rising costs, and environmental impacts of exploiting fossil fuels. Biosolvents such as acetone, butanol, and ethanol are attractive sources of fuel which can aid in replacing our dependence on foreign oil. Butanol is of particular interest due to its ability to directly replace gasoline, thus considered a drop-in-fuel. Biological hydrogen and methane gas are also attractive energy sources that can lower dependence on fossil energy.

This research focused on incorporating DNA sequencing technologies in parallel with fermentation methods for understanding and producing energy. The natural environment provides diverse and uncultured communities of bacteria and microalgae that can be fingerprinted with DNA technologies, isolated and/or cultivated, and employed for energy production. Anaerobic bacteria were isolated from the environment and utilized to produce energy from both algae and cheese whey, which are abundant and energy rich feedstocks. Additionally, these DNA sequencing technologies were utilized to understand the biogas and bioremediating communities within the Logan City Wastewater Lagoon System.

Comprehending microbial communities and their interactions is essential in optimizing industrial fermentations and isolating novel organisms of interest. This work demonstrates the capability to probe complex environments for community structures and functions using molecular techniques, while subsequently integrating this knowledge in the laboratory to produce high value bioproducts.

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