Patent ID: 7807427

Claim:
A method for production of methane, comprising: culturing a photosynthetic cyanobacteria in a first vessel in the presence of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and visible light, wherein the culturing provides for photosynthetic fixation of CO 2 to produce photosynthesis products, and wherein the photosynthetic cyanobacteria comprises at least one expression cassette comprising at least one gene that encodes for pyruvate decarboxylase, pyruvate dehydrogenase, aldehyde dehydrogenase or acetyl-CoA kinase, wherein the at least one expression cassette provides for modification of the photosynthesis products to products that can passively diffuse out of the cell, collecting and diverting the photosynthesis product in the absence of the photosynthetic cyanobacteria to a second vessel comprising methanogenic bacteria, and culturing said methanogenic bacteria to produce methane.