Objective
Heightened concerns over global warming and the supply, security and price of fossil oil, has led to a resurgence of interest in biological routes to the production of biofuels and chemicals. Butanol is a superior biofuel to ethanol with an existing platform chemical market of >3 M tonne/yr - worth $8 billion. Current attempts to revive a commercial butanol fermentation process are thwarted by: (i) the high cost of the feedstock; (ii) solvent toxicity and; (iii) low titers. Feedstock cost is 60-80% of butanol production, but attempts to use cheap cellulosic substrates are proving challenging. Glycerol on the other hand is a versatile carbon and energy source that is produced at a large scale as a waste product (10% w/w) of the biodiesel industry.
Here, the overall objective is to minimize the cost of biobutanol production by using crude glycerol as feedstock and to further improve the process with respect to butanol titer, yield and productivity. Uniquely, the process organism will be Clostridium pasteurianum, which unlike the traditionally used Clostridium acetobutylicum, produces little (ethanol) or no (acetone) solvent co-products. The project will capitalise on the extensive expertise of Dr Malaviya in bioprocess development and the unique range of ‘state-of-the-art’ metabolic engineering tools available at the host, to maximize biobutanol production from waste glycerol.
The project will lead to complementary exchange of capabilities and knowledge between Europe and India, and the establishment of a long lasting collaboration. The outcome will be an economic and sustainable commercial route to biobutanol that will improve the viability of already existing biodiesel industries in the EU, and elsewhere, by utilizing its principal waste product, glycerol. This will enhance EU competitiveness in the development of second generation biofuels (biodiesel & biobutanol) from renewables and will facilitate the achievement of the EU’s 2020 renewable fuels targets.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology metabolic engineering
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules lipids
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology biomaterials biofuels
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology bioprocessing technologies fermentation
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IIF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
NG7 2RD Nottingham
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.