Microbial process engineering for bioenergy generation and production of value-added chemicals

Start date: September 2017

A major challenge in contemporary energy and environmental management is to develop processes for energy generation that are environmentally sustainable. Fossil derived fuels contribute to global warming and are a depletable energy resource. It is increasingly becoming clear that the alternative of deriving energy from biological sources such as agricultural crops is not a sustainable route and more efficient routes of generating energy from biological sources are required. Microbes including bacteria, fungi and microalgae are versatile and have the capacity to produce fuel and fuel precursors. These include ethanol, butanol, hydrogen, methane, hydrocarbons, etc. Microbial processes have the potential for development towards sustainable bioenergy generation options as the inputs can be sourced from readily available feedstocks in a sustainable manner. Nevertheless challenges exist in converting the potential to viable processes.
The aim of this project is to study and examine engineering strategies that include cultivation of microbes in consortia to develop processes for energy generation that will be environmentally sustainable. An understanding of microbial metabolism and feedstock utilisation will form the basis of developing strategies that are viable.