Next Generation Biofilm — Interdisciplinary research network for the development of emerser photobioreactors

Current Project: PHOTOPROMA

Protein-based hybrid materials and active ingredients from microalgae through emers photofermentation and biorefining
 

 How and where will food and renewable resources be produced for projected 10 billion people in 2050? How can we avoid the plate-tank-trough problem?

 And how do future agricultural land and cities look like?

New innovations and solutions to these challenges are developed by an interdisciplinary team in differently funded research projects (EFRE, FMER, DFG, Ministry of Science RLP, industry partners, ZIM).
An interdisciplinary team in the BMBF-funded joint research project "Next Generation Biofilm — the Rose of Jericho of Biotechnology" is developing innovations by finding solutions to these challenges. The researchers of the Universities of Applied Sciences in Kaiserslautern, Trier, Augsburg and of the Technical University Kaiserslautern are geared towards the development of new production techniques and processes in the ecology and physiology of terrestrial microorganisms that do not live in water, but on land. For this purpose, a completely new platform technology is being developed which uses energy- and resource-efficient process technologies and implements a specific emerse, i.e. air-guided, production environment for terrestrial microorganisms. Currently, terrestrial microalgae are used as test organisms, which produce active ingredients and food supplements as well as food supplements in an emerse photobioreactor (ePBR). Further processes refine and functionalize the valuable materials, for example, into protein-polymer hybrid materials with new properties.