PANDA
PANDA: Production of organic acids from natural resources with surface display-based consolidated bioprocessing
Project description
PANDA (Production of organic acids from natural resources with surface display-based consolidated bioprocessing) is a 36-month research project between 1. August 2018 and 31. July 2021, where the University of Hamburg is working on.
Main focuses are therefore the utilization of corn stover, a until now undervalued agricultural raw material, the pretreatment of the biomass and following enzymatic hydrolysis. Goals are the production of monomeric carbohydrates for the fermentation of succinic acid, a promising platform chemical which is until now produced fuel-based. For this goal, a novel method for the application of enzymes is tested.
Corn stover is an agricultural residue from the corn kernel production and remain mainly on the field or is getting burned. Due to the prevention of air pollution and the sustainable use of this residue, corn stover is used in this project. However, corn stover is a promising lignocellulosic feedstock due to its high availability. Due to the natural recalcitrance of corn stover and other lignocelluloses against enzymatic degradation a pretreatment is usually necessary. In this project a process called steam refining is used. After pretreatment there is a fiber-, extract and gaseous phase.
The utilization of the fiber phase is conducted by enzymatic hydrolysis. The goal is the production of monomeric carbohydrates, like glucose or xylose. Beside commercial enzymes there are also enzymes tested, which are applicated into the outer membrane of bacterias by Autodisplay technique. Whereas the recovery of enzymes is difficult, the recycling of bacterias is quite easy by centrifugation. With this technique it might be possible to achieve economic benefits.
In the end the achieved monomers should be fermented into succinic acid. Succinic acid is a promising platform chemical which is until now produced fossil-based. With our tasks it might be possible to produce succinic acid from biomass in the future.
Partners
- Westfälische Wilhelms University Münster (WWU, Germany)
- Autodisplay Biotech GmbH (ADB, Germany)
- Nanjing Tech University (NJT, PR China)
Duration
2018 – 2021
Funding
UHH receives funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant agreement 031B0505B and the Project Management Jülich (PtJ).