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Abstract
The results obtained with methane-oxidizing-bacteria, enrichment or pure cultures (strain M 102) point to the fact that methane as a carbon source is assimilated in the cell. Gas turnover relations together with parallel growth measurements show a favourable relation for hydrocarbon oxidizing organisms. It was found that 1–2 weight units of methane could yield 1 weight unit dry weight bacterial biomass. Accordingly there is a justified optimistic hope that methane gas, one of the cheapest and most abundant natural hydrocarbons, would be used as a protein “precursor”. Much effort is now going into the development of a biotechnical process for the continuous cultivation of methane and methanol oxidizing bacteria.