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SYMBIOSE team

Topic "CO2 reduction by microbial consortia"

Biométhanation

Develop ex-situ biomethanation processes for biogas and syngas

Since 2015, the Symbiose team has been working on the development of ex-situ biomethanation processes for biogas and syngas.

This theme is part of the research on power to gas, and the creation of interconnections between the gas and electricity networks to balance supply, demand and energy storage.

It is about exploiting and amplifying the capacity of anaerobic microbial consortia to transform CO2 from biogas or CO and CO2 from syngas into CH4 thanks to the addition of a reducing element, hydrogen, coming from renewable resources (electrolysis of water thanks to electricity from renewable energies).

The Symbiose team relies on these skills in process engineering, modeling and consortia engineering to develop robust biogas and syngas purification processes. The phenomena of gas transfer and functional microbial selection are at the heart of the team's research questions. Indeed, TBI's competences allowed to improve the gas transfer in the liquid medium (heart of the biological reaction) and to select the conditions favoring the selection, the maintenance, the robustness and the resilience of the hydrogen-trophic microorganisms. 

Several research projects have positioned the Symbiose team among the pioneers of biomethanation in France.

Réacteur de méthanation biologique

Ongoing projects

DEMETHA Project

2020-2024

The objective of the project is to develop a pilot in an operational environment of biogas enrichment by biological methanation.

Partner CRITT GPTE

PLAINERGIE Project

2019-2022

The Symbiose team is co-supervising a CIFRE thesis (ENOSIS), with the DEEP laboratory of the INSA of Lyon, on the biomethanation of syngas (in the framework of the PLAINENERGIE 

HYCABIOME Project

2015-2018

The objective of the project was to make the proof of concept of the coupling methanization/biological methanation by French partners on the one hand, to detect the most interesting configurations for this process on the other hand.

HYDROMET Project

2016-2019

The objective of the project was to study different types of methanation processes. Biological methanation (BMI) was compared to two other catalytic methanation technologies: thermal heating activation (THA) and magnetic heating activation (MHA). All this was done in order to define usage scenarios for each, to identify the factors of technological innovation and to proceed to their implementation and optimization within pilots (TRL5-6). 

  • Funding: Occitania Region
  • Budget : de 750 000 euros
  • Partners: TBI, LCC, LCNO, ENOSIS
  • Site internet :
  • Articles :
  • Publication : Dumas, Claire, et Mathieu Sperandio. « Une production de méthane à partir de dioxyde de carbone et d’électricité renouvelable ». In Inventer l’avenir L’ingénierie se met au vert, CNRS Editions., 2019.

The results brought by these various projects will make it possible on the one hand to define a concept of integration of the biological methanation at the horizon 2025 on the units of production of biogas or syngas and on the other hand to compare various dies of hydrogenation (catalytic and biological) of CO2 and CO in order to be able to determine which solutions will be the most relevant according to the field of application.

Gaz2Organics Project

2021-2023

Proof of Concept of an integrated process coupling microbial production and membrane separation of organic acids and alcohols from CO2

 The objective of the GAS2ORGANICS project, associating TBI and LGC, is to establish a proof of concept of an integrated process allowing the production of organic acids and alcohols from CO2 by microbial consortia.