Nutrient Values of Produced Single Cell Protein from Natural Gas

The alarming rate of population growth has increased the demand for food production in third world countries leading to a deep gap in demand and supply. This situation has created a demand for the formulation of innovative and alternative proteinaceous food sources. Single cell protein (SCP) production is a major step in this direction. The bacterial single-cell protein, produced by aerobic fermentation of natural gas with Methanotrophic bacteria, is a potential protein source for man and animals. Optimization of the process parameters with Taguchi design method, amino acid profile and removal of nucleic acids from SCP by heat shock treatment as a protein supplementing source are discussed in this research. Protein production in the optimum condition was 69.3 (w/w) % of biomass which its structural amino acids can be in contest with other nutrient sources. An average amount of 10g for RNA out of any 100g of cellular protein was extracted from the biomass.

Keywords:

Single cell protein , Natural gas , RNA evaluation , Protein source