Biomimetic methane oxidation. Final report, October 1, 1989--June 1, 1995

Transportation fuels are a critical energy commodity and they impact nearly every sector of this country. The need for transportation fuels is projected well into the next century. Consequently, there is a strong emphasis on the economical conversion of other domestic fossil energy resources to liquid hydrocarbons that can be used as transportation fuels. Natural gas is currently a readily available resource that has a positive future outlook considering its known and anticipated reserves. There is intense government and industrial interest in developing economic technologies to convert natural gas to liquid fuels. Methane, CH{sub 4}, is the primary hydrocarbon (85-95%) in natural gas. This document covers the following: production soluable of methane monooxygenase; production of particulate methane monooxygenase; production of methane monooxygenase in continuous culture; subunit resolution for active site identification of methylosinus trichosporium OB3b soluble methane monooxygenase; the synthesis and characterization of new copper coordination complexes contairing the asymmetric coordinating chelate ligand application to enzyme active site modeling; the synthesis and characterization of new iron coordination complexes utilizing an asymmetric coordinating chelate ligand; further characterization of new bionuclear iron complexes.