Microbial Stabilization and Kinetic Enhancement of Marine Methane Hydrates
In clathrate hydrates, a water host lattice encages small guest molecules in cavities. Methane hydrates are the most widespread in-situ clathrate in the permafrost and continental-shelf ocean regions, constituting a significant energy resource, and prompting recent marine-hydrate gas-production tria...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | unknown |
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Taylor & Francis
2019
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11183759 https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/Microbial_Stabilization_and_Kinetic_Enhancement_of_Marine_Methane_Hydrates/11183759 |
| Summary: | In clathrate hydrates, a water host lattice encages small guest molecules in cavities. Methane hydrates are the most widespread in-situ clathrate in the permafrost and continental-shelf ocean regions, constituting a significant energy resource, and prompting recent marine-hydrate gas-production trials. Despite exciting engineering advances and a few marine-mimicking laboratory studies of methane-hydrate kinetics and stabilization, from microbial perspectives, little is known about a potential microbial origin of marine hydrates, nor their possible formation kinetics or potential stabilization by microbial sources. Here, for the first time, we show that an exported, extra-cytoplasmic porin – produced by a marine methylotrophic bacterium culture – provides the basis for kinetic enhancement and stabilization of methane hydrates under conditions simulating the seabed environment. We then identify the key protein at play, and we therefore suggest microbe-based stabilization of marine hydrates is evidently a property likely to be found in many marine bacteria. Our research opens the possibility of managing marine-hydrate deposits using microbiological strategies for environmental and societal benefit. |
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