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Anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic matter is a robust technology for biogas synthesis from different types of waste (sewage sludge from water treatment, animal slurry, bio-waste, etc.). The main goal of AD is the production of methane, a renewable energy source that can be used to generate electricity, heat or as vehicle fuel.
Acronym

MICRO4BIOGAS

Description

Title: Natural and Synthetic Microbial Communities for Sustainable Production of Optimised Biogas.
Coordination: Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology Group (UVEG).

Biogas is a mixture of methane (CH4; 55–70% of the total volume), carbon dioxide (CO2; 30–40%) and traces of other gases. However, from a purely engineering view, the microbial process underlying methane production is considered to be a black box: it is subjected to a degree of variability and it is an industrial process with a lot of room for improvement in the systematic optimisation of (1) yield, (2) quality, (3) speed and (4) robustness of the process. MICRO4BIOGAS aims to tackle these 4 aspects by integrating, for the first time, the use of microbial consortia that naturally inhabit anaerobic digesters with synthetic microbial consortia with improved capabilities, setting the basis for a user-friendly kit for bioaugmentation of biogas production.

Total Amount: 5.7M€
Ref. Grant Agreement ID 101000470

European Union - Horizon 2020

Non-UV principal researchers

M. Porcar

Start date
2021 June
End date
2025 May
Funding agencies:

European Commission (H2020 Program)

Partners:

14 partners from 6 EU countries.

Project type
  • EU - Horizon Europe (HE): ERC (European Research Council) projects