Developing new strategies to improve the sustainability of human-made ecosystems. This area is a part of our highly collaborative research effort to address virtually all anthropogenic methane sources by developing an environment-friendly approach to converting small sources of methane to value-added chemicals (see our current projects).

Current research projects:

NSF-CBET: Microbial conversion of greenhouse gases into fermentation-ready sugars. In this project we will explore a new dry fermentation process for biological methane utilization which is based on the unique ability of salt-loving, methane-consuming bacteria to not only stay active in an immobilized state without water supplementation but also to accumulate sugar (i.e., sucrose) in response to low water availability. Dry fermentation merges the full potential of biological systems with technology development to address affordable methane mitigation.  The module is envisioned as an array of micro-fibers with active methane-consuming cells engineered to convert methane into extractable sucrose. If validated, the platform could represent a transformative solution for methane mitigation which offers the following advantages: (i) complete conversion of a significant greenhouse gas into an economically usable compound; (ii) a scalable, closed, low-complexity system; (iii) a new cost-effective approach to sustainability with the potential to convert pollution control and mitigation into an economically beneficial industry; (iv) improved life cycle parameters and the long-term sustainability of established and newly emerging bio-technologies that produce methane as a byproduct.  The module could be developed further into air-purifying cartridges that could be implemented at any hot-spot of methane emission, as a sustainable alternative to gas flare.