The reason for using methane as the purging agent is that you expect there to be
plenty of methane in the environment you are attempting to set up.
If I was setting up an environment for humans, I might suggest flushing all
the hydrogen and methane out using air.
Since you are growing methanogens, flushing out any toxic (to them) gases
with the gas they produce normally, and live in, seems natural.
You did not say what your methanogens breathe in.
Some convert hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane.
For those, the ideal flushing gas would be a mix of hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
Other methanogens convert acetate or acetic acid to methane.
One reason your chosen critter is 'difficult to culture' might be that it is difficult
to grow as a pure culture. Many methanogens rely on other bacteria to digest
starches and carbohydrates into hydrogen, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and
organic acids. The methanogens then live on those byproducts. Without the
commensal bacteria, the methanogens could be quite difficult to grow.
Starting with the natural mixed ecology found in animal waste, methane is easy
to produce, and the bacteria are easy to grow. And it better simulates what is
going on in the animal gut than any pure culture could.
-----
Get a free science project every week! "http://scitoys.com/newsletter.html"On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 9:51 AM, Nathan McCorkle <nmz787@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 11:49 AM, Stephen FortuneYou're thinking methane from your gut is coming up your throat?
<stephen.j.fortune@gmail.com> wrote:
>> It sounds like you're not so much interested in making methane as you are
>> in trying to automate human fart production. True?
>
>
> :)
>
> Well it's certainly an unavoidable comparison. But the initial hope was to
> obliquely sonify the traces created by the microbes inside us (me) by
> linking it back to the methane whistle (similar acoustic effect as helium
> voices really), but I'm not sure sufficient hydrogen would be produced by
> gut microbes to leave an audible trace.
Won't hurt, if they don't need oxygen then get rid of it!
>
> So in addition to having an air tight environment, is it advisable to purge
> the media which the microbes will be cultured in?
>
I think you meant to ask how is argon equivalent to methane in
>
>> Instead of argon, I would use methane.
>
>
> Also, and again forgive my ignorance, how is methane equivalent to methane
> for the purposes of maintaining an anaerobic environment
>
establishing an anaerobic environment... well, they're both
non-oxygen... argon is pretty much non-reactive, though as mentioned
Methane can explode.
LPG or propane would probably work similarly to methane, or maybe even
butane... hopefully these gasses don't melt plastic petri dishes
(you'd probably more than 1 ATM of pressure to do that with any
rapidity though)!
--
Nathan McCorkle
Rochester Institute of Technology
College of Science, Biotechnology/Bioinformatics
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