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Cracking anaerobic bacteria

Nature volume 401, pages 217–218 (1999)Cite this article

Hydrocarbons such as hexadecane have seemed resistant to bacterial decay to methane. Not so, it turns out, but this bacterial hydrocarbon ‘cracking’ process is very slow.

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Figure 1: Natural gas and the chemist.

MANCHESTER CITY ART GALLERIES

Figure 2: Making methane from hexadecane — the interacting team of seven bacteria that ‘cracks’ hexadecane anaerobically to CH4 gas.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK

    John Parkes

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  1. John Parkes
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Correspondence to John Parkes.

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Parkes, J. Cracking anaerobic bacteria. Nature 401, 217–218 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/45686

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