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Volume 8, Issue 5 (Suppl) J Bioremediat Biodegrad, an open access journal
ISSN: 2155-6199 Biofuels Congress 2017
September 05-06, 2017
September 05-06, 2017 | London, UK
Biofuels and Bioenergy
6th World Congress on
A research into the microbial hydrolysis and bioconversion of coal
Valentino S Junior Te’o, Jonathan Evers, Ancy Besoc and Kevin Dudley
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Background and Research Problem: Coal is an abundant and economical feedstock for the production of energy globally. In
Australia, coal is mined primarily in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The predominant use for coal is to generate
electricity, with the 430.9 million tonnes of coal mined 2013/14; 375.1 million tonnes was exported to Asia (Australian Office of
the Chief Economist, 2015). In 2013, Australia was the world's fifth-largest coal producer, after China, the United States, India, and
Indonesia (WCA, 2014). Victoria hosts 430 billion tonnes of brown coal, representing a significant proportion of the world’s brown
coal resource. Burning coal for fuel is economically important worldwide, but decades of production and emission of Green House
Gases such as CO2 and CH4 have contributed to Climate change. The research at QUT focuses on cleaner alternative methods for
the conversion of feedstocks such as lignocellulosics and coal to energy. Emphasis for this research is on understanding the complex
bioreactions during microbial hydrolysis of coal, in order to design more cost-effective bioconversion processes for different coal
types from different parts of Australia.
Methodology: Different coal types (eg. Brown, Black and Shale) were treated with microbial consortia using Batch and Fed Batch
controlled conditions, with gas samples removed and analyzed using gas chromatography. Different samples of microbial consortia
were tested, for their contribution during the bioconversion reactions.
Findings: So far, up to 30 % CH4 and 60% CO2 have been generated over a period of 5-10 days, with a mass reduction of around
35% (Figure 1). Identifications of different microbial consortia have been achieved, with the genus Bacillus and Lisinibacillus found
important during the production of CH4.
Conclusion & Significance: Microbial bioconversion of coal to bioproducts such as biogases offer a cleaner alternative for energy
production, but importantly, more cost effective bioprocess designs are needed that relies on a critical fundamental understanding
and subsequent application of the microbial activities.
Biography
Junior Te’o employed at Queensland University of Technology has extensive experience in microbial biotechnological bioprocess applications such as
bioremediation, and biofuel production from different feedstocks such as lignocellulosics, coal and shale, under controlled fermentation conditions. He also has
experience in microbial strain improvement, enzyme production and fermentation bioprocess method development and optimization from laboratory scale (1-20L)
to industry scale, > 1000L.
Valentino S Junior Te’o et al., J Bioremediat Biodegrad 2017, 8:5(Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2155-6199-C1-008