Harnessing the power of soda lake microbial mats for CO2 capture and conversion

利用苏打湖微生物垫的力量来捕获和转化二氧化碳

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-03947
• 负责人: Strous, Marc
• 金额: $ 2.91万
• 依托单位: University of Calgary
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=715484
• 关键词: Harnessing; power; soda; lake; microbial

Soda lakes are among the most alkaline aquatic environments on earth and among the most productive ecosystems known. High pH, high salinity, and extensive free radical activity lead to extreme conditions for survival of aquatic life. At the same time, a virtually endless supply of bicarbonate enables active photosynthesis by microbial mats - complex multi-layered microbial communities similar to ancient stromatolites or thrombolites. Soda lakes are distributed all over the world and Canada is home to some of those. Recently, my team compared microbial mats from Canadian soda lakes - Cariboo Pateau, BC - to Asian soda lakes on the Kulunda steppe, Mongolia. Metagenomics analyses showed that these distant ecosystems share a common ecological blueprint, a similar microbial community. Apparently, nature has come up with a single solution for this ecosystem a community structure that is both productive and robust in an extreme and dynamic environment. My aim is to use that blueprint to realize a technically and economically feasible bio-process, powered by the sun, for direct-air-capture and conversion of CO2 into bio-energy. This year, we have been able to take the research to pilot-scale. The installation features >300 m of transparent pipes and a total volume of almost 1,000 L. It was seeded with the Canadian soda lake microbiome and operated successfully for 140 days in the Alberta outdoor environment, demonstrating both robustness and productivity. Making use of natural processes occurring in soda lake sediments, my team discovered how to bio-refine the produced biomass into methane and phyocyanin, a valuable natural product. These positive results have propelled the program into a critical stage, with a spin off company, Synergia Biotech, incorporated recently. It was selected into the Creative Destruction Lab, a Canada-wide program that provides business mentorship and access to investors. Scale up and commercialization are becoming a real possibility. My Discovery Program supports this development by addressing the fundamental ecology of the system with cutting edge -omics approaches: (i) how do the microbes performing photosynthesis cope with predation by protists and viruses? (ii) do they depend on known defenses such as CRISPR-Cas systems? (iii) do they diversify to escape predation? (iv) how much carbon is lost by interactions between phototrophs and heterotrophs? (v) Can Loki-archaea, enigmatic microbes abundant in soda lake sediments, be used to further improve bio-refining? This research will answer fundamental questions on robustness and productivity in microbial ecology. It supports development of technology for mitigating CO2 emissions and production of a high-value natural product, directly contributing to Canada's green energy portfolio and economy.

苏打湖是地球上最碱性的水生环境之一，也是最有生产力的生态系统之一。高pH值，高盐度和广泛的自由基活性导致水生生存的极端条件。同时，碳酸氢盐几乎无尽的供应可以通过微生物垫子进行活跃的光合作用 - 复杂的多层微生物群落，类似于古代基质石或血栓形成。苏打湖遍布世界各地，加拿大是其中一些的家园。 最近，我的团队将加拿大汽水湖（Cariboo Pateau，BC）的微生物垫与蒙古Kulunda Steppe上的亚洲苏打湖进行了比较。宏基因组学分析表明，这些遥远的生态系统具有共同的生态蓝图，即类似的微生物群落。显然，自然已经为这个生态系统提供了一个解决方案，一种社区结构在极端和动态的环境中既有生产力又强大。 我的目的是利用该蓝图实现由太阳提供动力的技术和经济上可行的生物过程，将CO2的直接空气捕获和转换为生物能量。 今年，我们能够将研究带到飞行员规模。该装置的特征> 300 m的透明管道和近1,000升的总体积。它与加拿大苏打水湖微生物组播种，并在艾伯塔省的户外环境中成功运行了140天，表明稳健性和生产力。利用在苏打湖沉积物中发生的自然过程，我的团队发现了如何将产生的生物量生物化入甲烷和植物素（一种宝贵的天然产品）中。 这些积极的结果将该计划推向了一个关键阶段，最近有一家旋转公司Synergia Biotech最近成立了。它被选为Creative Destruction Lab，这是一项加拿大范围的计划，可提供商业指导和与投资者的访问权限。扩大规模，商业化已成为一种真正的可能性。 我的发现程序通过使用前沿 - 组学方法来解决系统的基本生态来支持这一发展：（i）微生物如何与生物和病毒的捕食相抵触微生物？ （ii）它们是否取决于已知的防御措施，例如CRISPR-CAS系统？ （iii）它们会多样化以逃避捕食吗？ （iv）光养相互作用与异嗜酸群之间的相互作用损失了多少碳？ （v）苏打湖沉积物中丰富的神秘微生物Loki Archaea可用于进一步改善生物化的改良吗？ 这项研究将回答有关微生物生态学鲁棒性和生产力的基本问题。它支持用于减轻二氧化碳排放和生产高价值天然产品的技术的开发，这直接促进了加拿大的绿色能源产品组合和经济。