Final Report Summary - 3CBIOTECH (Cold Carbon Catabolism of Microbial Communities underprinning a Sustainable Bioenergy and Biorefinery Economy)
The 3CBIOTECH project has established a new research group to investigate the Microbiology and microbial ecology of environmental biotechnologies used for bioenergy production. In particular, the anaerobic digestion (AD) process, which is a naturally-occurring process in Nature and which is also applied in biotechnologies to convert wastes into useful biogas and energy, was investigated over the course of the project.
The project had several distinct foci: (1) the feasibility of the AD process under low-temperature conditions so as to avoid the need to use energy to heat the biotechnologies used; (2) biological treatment of the off-gases from the AD technologies, including hydrogen sulphide and ammonia gases; (3) the incorporation of sister technologies, including slow sand filters, as part of treatment systems built around the AD process; and innovative approaches to BOTH: (4) building tailor-made microbial communities AND (5) applying DNA-sequencing technologies to study the microbial interactions, and microbial ecology, underpinning the entire set of processes studied.
A range of experiments were devised to investigate the application of the AD process, and laboratory-scale bioreactors, designed and constructed by the project team, were used. Molecular biology, based on sequencing the DNA and RNA of microorganisms underpinning the AD technologies, was used and new information has been generated on how distinct microbial species interact during the process. In particular, the team contributed to developing a new tool for identifying whole microbial genomes from large 'metagenome' datasets.
In addition, newly-discovered species were found in the AD technologies studied by the group at both laboratory- and full-scale. A novel approach, based on artificially assembling communities of different microbial species, was used to create synthetic 'clusters' of microbial cells able to efficiently convert waste to energy. This demonstrates the potential for science to intervene in new ways to improve microbial communities for important tasks in biotechnology - and it will lead to future research by the team on 3-D printing of microbial communities for biotechnologies in the circular economy..
Finally, a good deal of the work performed by the ERC project team was also focused on sanitation in developing countries. The team collaborated with sociologists and engineers to develop inter-disciplinary approaches to study sustainable sanitation in Sub-Saharan countries.
Several undergraduate, masters and PhD students were supervised by the ERC team, contributing to the development of new scientists in the fields of environmental biotechnology, microbiology and engineering.
The project had several distinct foci: (1) the feasibility of the AD process under low-temperature conditions so as to avoid the need to use energy to heat the biotechnologies used; (2) biological treatment of the off-gases from the AD technologies, including hydrogen sulphide and ammonia gases; (3) the incorporation of sister technologies, including slow sand filters, as part of treatment systems built around the AD process; and innovative approaches to BOTH: (4) building tailor-made microbial communities AND (5) applying DNA-sequencing technologies to study the microbial interactions, and microbial ecology, underpinning the entire set of processes studied.
A range of experiments were devised to investigate the application of the AD process, and laboratory-scale bioreactors, designed and constructed by the project team, were used. Molecular biology, based on sequencing the DNA and RNA of microorganisms underpinning the AD technologies, was used and new information has been generated on how distinct microbial species interact during the process. In particular, the team contributed to developing a new tool for identifying whole microbial genomes from large 'metagenome' datasets.
In addition, newly-discovered species were found in the AD technologies studied by the group at both laboratory- and full-scale. A novel approach, based on artificially assembling communities of different microbial species, was used to create synthetic 'clusters' of microbial cells able to efficiently convert waste to energy. This demonstrates the potential for science to intervene in new ways to improve microbial communities for important tasks in biotechnology - and it will lead to future research by the team on 3-D printing of microbial communities for biotechnologies in the circular economy..
Finally, a good deal of the work performed by the ERC project team was also focused on sanitation in developing countries. The team collaborated with sociologists and engineers to develop inter-disciplinary approaches to study sustainable sanitation in Sub-Saharan countries.
Several undergraduate, masters and PhD students were supervised by the ERC team, contributing to the development of new scientists in the fields of environmental biotechnology, microbiology and engineering.