Project Details
Projekt
3DFiberFilm: Designing High-Producing Carboxydotrophic Biofilms with the Help of 3D Textiles
Subject Area
Biological Process Engineering
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 559281457
The reduction of the anthropogenic CO2 footprint in atmosphere is one of the leading goals to mitigate risks and consequences of climate change. Microbial carbon capture and use (CCU) may play a significant role for converting CO2 of hot spot emissions in drop in chemicals which would have been produced by fossil routes alternately. In particular, acetogenic bacteria such as Acetobacter woodii and Clostridium carboxidivorans are promising candidates to convert CO2+H2 in short and mid chain alcohols and organic acids. Notably, the industrial showcase Clostridium autoethanogenum prefers steel offgas that contains large amounts of CO for producing ethanol. By comparison, the necessary supply of poorly dissolvable H2 in CO2+H2 applications puts an additional hurdle to make promising gas fermentation happen in large-scale bioreactors. This is exactly where the call of an SPP finds common ground with gas fermentation: The installation of highly productive biofilms, the construction of scalable biofilm reactors, and the building of instructive models for biofilm processes and reactors are key to make large scale CO2+H2 conversion by carboxidotrophic bacteria happen. 3DFiberFilm thoroughly investigates, designs, implements, and applies 3D textile fibers as promising carriers for highly productive biofilms. Intensive mass transfer studies investigating multiple operational settings in different bioreactor types complement the research to maximize space-time-yields and carbon conversion as a prerequisite of success. Hence, 3DFiberFilm centers on optimizing biofilm productivity by thoroughly understanding the biofilm/carrier and the biofilm/liquid/gas interactions.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 2494:
Productive Biofilm Systems
