Extremophilic microbiological cell factories for a high efficient biohydrogen production
Abstract
Hydrogen (H2) is an important energy carrier and renewable fuel of the future. It can be produced biologically from anaerobic fermentation, but currently these processes have low production rates and yields. It is necessary to develop new biological hydrogen-production technologies to obtain hydrogen at industrial scale in an energy efficient and environmentally friendly manner. Extremophile microorganisms offer new options to greatly improve biogenic H2 production and have the potential to be a large step towards large-scale H2 production. Extremophiles are particularly suited to novel biotechnological applications and processes owing to their unusual metabolisms. Many extremophiles (e.g. thermophiles, acidophiles, halophiles) belong to the domain or kingdom of the Archaea. Archaea represent the third domain of organisms alongside Bacteria and Eukarya, and strains from this domain will also be used in this project. This project will develop an innovative fermentation process with extremophiles. The first process step involves the hydrolysis of biomass, and to do this various strains will be screened to find a strain in which the hydrogen production is not inhibited by the presence of dissolved hydrogen. Carbon dioxide and acetate are typically produced alongside H2. In the second process step, the acetate will be converted to H2 by syntrophic microorganism.
Hydrogen Bacteria Archaea biofilm
Publikationen
Project staff
Günther Bochmann
Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Günther Bochmann
guenther.bochmann@boku.ac.at
BOKU Project Leader
01.04.2016 - 31.03.2019
BOKU partners
External partners
Studienkoordination Ökologie
none
coordinator
ACIB GmbH
none
partner