SPP 2240:  Bioelectrochemical and engineering fundamentals to establish electro-biotechnolgy for biosynthesis – Power to value-added products (eBiotech)

• Subject Area: Thermal Engineering/Process Engineering ; Biology ; Chemistry ; Geosciences ; Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering ; Materials Science and Engineering ; Medicine
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 422694804

The SPP 2240 “e-Biotech” harnesses the latest advances in (bio)electrochemistry, microbiology, materials science, systems and synthetic biology and process engineering to pave the way for an emerging new field, the electro-biotechnology. It provides an immense chance to develop completely new and highly efficient bioprocesses from electricity and sustainable substrates including CO2. To this end, fundamental research, especially with an engineering approach to link the basic science with process technology, are urgently needed. The SPP timely brings together research groups with broad expertise and from different locations for a true interdisciplinary collaboration. With this e-Biotech lays the necessary foundations for realizing the promise of electro-biotechnology and enabling Germany to become internationally leading in this important area of bioeconomy and the use of regenerative energy (Power-to-Products).

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Austria

Projects

• Coordination Funds (Applicant Agler-Rosenbaum, Miriam )
• Design of an electrochemical bioproduction system for piperazines (Applicants Apfel, Ulf-Peter ;  Hauer, Bernhard ;  Lauterbach, Lars )
• Electrobiochemistry and whole-cell biocatalysis: Power to value-added products through separated anode/cathode reactions (Applicants Apfel, Ulf-Peter ;  Lauterbach, Lars ;  Tischler, Dirk )
• Electrochemical fluidized bed reactors for electro-enzymatic syntheses including gaseous phases: Part II. Modelling, Scale-up and in-line process monitoring (Applicant Franzreb, Matthias )
• Enzyme, Electrode and Reactor Design for Enzymatic Cascade Reactions (Applicants Apfel, Ulf-Peter ;  Einsle, Oliver ;  Fischer, Anna )
• ESCAPE 2.0: Establishing a scalable bioprocess reactor platform for cathodic obligate anaerobic electrobiosynthesis (Applicants Agler-Rosenbaum, Miriam ;  Harnisch, Falk )
• Establishing jet loop reactors as scalable bioelectrochemical reactor systems for anodic and cathodic production processes (Applicants Gescher, Johannes ;  Schlüter, Michael )
• Light-powered bioelectrochemical conversion of CO2 for the synthesis of value-added chemicals based on gas-diffusion electrodes and enzyme cascades (Applicant Schuhmann, Wolfgang )
• Magnetite anodes to inhibit oxygen production and to circumvent membranes in microbial electrosynthesis (Applicants Angenent, Ph.D., Largus ;  Kappler, Andreas )
• MRI as a method for the quantitative analysis of live electroactive biofilms (Applicants Dreher, Wolfgang ;  Kerzenmacher, Sven )
• Multistep Bioelectrochemical Reaction Cascade in Continuously Operated Flow Reactors (BioElectroFlow) (Applicants Fiedler, Bodo ;  Liese, Andreas )
• Next Generation electroenzymatic cascades for complex molecules (NGeCascades) (Applicants Lütz, Stephan ;  Nett, Markus ;  Waldvogel, Siegfried R. )
• Novel electron transfer pathways in Ralstonia eutropha (Applicants Holtmann, Dirk ;  Lenz, Oliver )
• optiMEET – Optimisation of mediated extracellular electron transfer for Cupriavidus necator (Applicants Holtmann, Dirk ;  Lenz, Oliver )
• Power to value-added products via electro-biotechnology: Production of bulk chemicals by combining electrochemical and biocatalytic steps in “one-pot” with “green” electricity (Applicants Gröger, Harald ;  Schäfer, Helmut )
• Rational design of 3-D electroenzymatic electrodes comprising novel enzymatic cascade and NADP(H) co-factor regeneration (Applicants Bornscheuer, Uwe T. ;  Vidakovic-Koch, Tanja )
• Systems metabolic engineering of Hydrogenophaga pseudoflava for aerobic biosynthesis of fatty acids using CO2 and electron carriers in a novel bioelectrochemical system (Applicants Blombach, Bastian ;  Gescher, Johannes )
• Tailored cell embedment for enhanced continuous microbial electrosynthesis (Conti-eBiotech) (Applicants Krull, Rainer ;  Schröder, Uwe )
• Tunable electro-fermentation using metabolically engineered Pseudomonas putida (Applicants Krömer, Jens ;  Wittmann, Christoph )
• Understanding Benefits and Trade-offs in Coupling Cathodic and Anodic Processes in Continuous Electroenzymatic Reaction Cascades (Applicants Plumeré, Nicolas ;  Sieber, Volker )
• Valorization of carbon dioxide by electrocatalytic reduction coupled to acetogens via multiple electron carriers (Ecat-acetogens II) (Applicants Fellinger, Tim-Patrick ;  Weuster-Botz, Dirk )

• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Miriam Agler-Rosenbaum, since 3/2022