Sustainble Microbial and Biocatalytic Production of Advanced Functional Materials
The Sustainble Microbial and Biocatalytic Production of Advanced Functional Materials
(Bioproduction) IP aims at the development of novel sustainable bioprocesses for the
production of functional bioproducts (e.g., lactic acid- and PHA-based polyesters,
chitosan and alginate biopolymers, polysaccharide-based biosurfactants). To address
this challenge, the following radical innovations will be pursued:
- Novel biocatalysts: exploration of native/manipulated microorganisms
for the low-cost production of a wide spectrum of enzymes with tailored substrate
specificity, thermal stability and optimum pH. Use of bioinformatics in design of
specific enzyme targets. Improvement of enzyme stability and catalytic efficiency
using immobilization technologies. Biocatalysis in organic media.
- Metabolic pathway engineering of multiple reactions to generate novel metabolic
products, for enhancing naturally occurring pathways to generate intermediates and
to broaden the utilizable substrate range to various renewable and waste carbon
sources.
- Innovative downstream processing operation for the recovery of bioproducts.
- Digital bioproduction and bioprocessing: the application of advanced modeling, monitoring
and control methods to bioprocesses will bring new prospects for substantial improvements
in production efficiency and product quality.
The proposed IP integrates the scientific activities and complementary skills of
more than one hundred researchers coming from 14 EU-countries. The Consortium consists
of 7 SMEs, 4 large companies, 6 research centers and 8 university departments. The
joint efforts and co-operation between different partners representing a variety
of research fields and coming from different parts of Europe will contribute to
the wide-open dissemination of R&D results and their industrial exploitation
as expressed in the notion of the ERA. Training of researchers, dissemination of
R&D results and technology transfer especially to SMEs will be prioritised activities,
which will contribute to the establishment of business ventures in Europe.