Developing a microbial refinery

Green chemicals (chemicals which are derived from renewable resources) are building blocks for bioplastics and their production is a hot research topic. In a biorefinery (Fig. 1), microbes are used to convertrenewable biomass into a range of green fuels and (building block) chemicals, which can in turn be used for the production of for example bioplastics. However, this type of refineries is currently still too expensive to be economically competitive with traditional refineries.

Scope of the project

Our project is aimed at developing a new generation of thermophilic microbial production strains, the microbial refineries, that are suited for cost-effective production of various green chemicals in a biorefinery concept. Industrial advantages compared to today’s mesophilic white biotechnology work horses will be the thermophilic nature, the anaerobic fermentation capacities, the ability to use lignocellulosic sugars, and the possibility to use simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of lignocellulosic substrates. The project comprises strain isolation and selection, genome sequencing, metabolic reconstruction and metabolic engineering. We work with relatively unexplored species, which makes this a very exciting and new project with a close link to practical application.

Techniques

Techniques that you will use during your project may include metabolic engineering (which includes for example cloning of interesting genes and improving transformation efficiency of genetically recalcitrantspecies), strain characterization of novel species, fermentation with lab-scale bioreactors, HPLC analysis, bioinformatic analyses such as metabolic reconstruction, etc.

Contact information

For more information about an internship, thesis or other form of student project, please feel free to contact us by e-mail, phone, or just pass by: Elleke Bosma or Tom van de Weijer

Address: Dreijenplein 10, WUR building nr 316, room 0.022. Phone: +31(0)317-483748