Biotech unit -

Microbiome Engineering group

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 Microbiome ENGINEERING group

Microbiome bioprospecting
Optimisation of anaerobic bioreactor Application of omics to characterise
efficiency:
Process Engineering

microbial communities and their

• Feedstock analysis
• Early detection tools
• Novel reactor design
• Balancing of trace element
Biological biogas upgrading:
metabolic potential:
• Community profilling
• Metagenomics
• Metatranscriptomics
• Bioinformatics

• Biomethanation reactor Cultivation of industrially relevant

• Stand alone two reactor technology
• Large scale pilot
Digestate upcycling:
novel microorganisms:
• Anaerobic and aerobic bacteria
• Anaerobic gut fungi (in progress)

• Nutrient recovery and application

• Biostimulant production

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Microbiome ENGINEERING group
Objective: Enhancing methane yield in anaerobic bioreactor
​Key capabilities

• Biomass characterisation: feedstock composition, methane potential, detection of inhibitory, feeding regime

• Process optimisation from laboratory scale to large scale pilot

• Up/down-scaling: process optimisation and stability for anaerobic bioreactor

• Biological biogas upgrading technology

Key expertise

• Anaerobic bioprocess design and operation

• Trace element role and speciation in anaerobic bioreactor

• Biological methanation

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Microbiome ENGINEERING group
Objective: Characterise biomass-rich microbiomes and identify industrially relevant strains
​Key capabilities

• Community profiling and characterisation of metabolic potential, with a strong focus on lignocellulolytic activities, of
microbes present in anaerobic digestion reactors, the termite gut system, soil, cave deposits, etc.

• Characterisation, enrichment and cultivation of syntrophic bacteria involved in propionate oxidation in anaerobic
methanogenic environments

• Enrichment and isolation of new lignocellulolytic strains from biomass-rich habitats

• Production in heterologous hosts and characterisation of carbohydrate active enzymes

Key expertise

• Community profiling with 16S rRNA (bacteria and archaea), 18SrRNA (eukaryotes) ITS (fungi) and other protein coding
genes (diatoms) of microbial communities from diverse environments, analysis of viromes (viral community profiling)

• Metagenomics (community metabolic potential, e.g. reconstruction of metabolic pathways, novel genomes,
metatranscriptomics (analysis of gene transcripts, e.g. active community potential), metaproteomics, bioinformatics

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State of the art facilities

Expertise
Equipment

- 200 batch test reactors(2l) for

• Analysis on • Bioinformatics
• chemistry • Data analysis
biomethane chemical
• omics • Synthetic potential
biology - AMPTS II automated system
(15 x 500 ml bottles)
- Wide range of lab and pilot
scale anaerobic bioreactors
(2l, 5l and 100l) including
ABRs
- Mobile methanation prototype
• Sustainability (1,000 l)
assessment • Bioprocessing - Field equipment for rapid
• Toxicity testing • Bioreactors diagnosis of AD process on
• Reach, env. risk an. • Clean (bio)tech biogas plants (mobile
digester)

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Thank you for
your attention