Academic CentreProductive catalytic living materials: combining 3D biobased fibrillar membranes with synthetic microbial consortia to produce chemicals (2024-2027)
Project No. ES RTD/2024/27
Source of funding: M-ERA.Net project funded by the Latvia State budget funding within the scope of the funding programme “Support for participation in European Union's research and technology development programs”, Latvian Council of Science
Project period: 01.07.2024.-30.06.2027. (36 months)
Total budget: 1 526 982 EUR
Project coordinator: Dr.-Ing. Rohan Karande, Leipzig University, Germany; Project leader from the University of Latvia: Senior researcher Dr.sc.ing. Elina Dace, elina.dace@lu.lv
Organizational unit implementing the project: Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Circularity Transitions Research Group
Project consortium: Leipzig University (Germany), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Ltd. (Germany), Solaga (Germany), Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania), University of Latvia (Latvia)
Objective:
To capture and utilize natural resources (e.g., solar energy, natural fibers) and waste resources (e.g., CO2, lignin-derived substrates) for developing catalytic living materials that are robust, energy-efficient, and scalable for continuous chemical production.
Summary:
In nature, materials with unique renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable potential are produced and evolved to provide the most effective designs and systems. Such naturally evolved systems inspire and set the basis for the LivMat project to design catalytic living materials (cat-LMs) and overcome fundamental efficiency, robustness, and scalability issues associated with current state-of-art technologies.
The LivMat project aims to combine 3D porous structures made of natural and/or synthetic materials with microbial consortia to effectively capture natural and waste resources and develop cat-LMs to synthesize chemicals continuously. The project will utilize an AI-driven closed-loop design platform for integrated data analysis and system optimization to grant predictive power and deliver actionable knowledge for obtaining high-performance cat-LMs. As a result, the LivMat team will demonstrate and scale cat-LMs-based bioreactors up to technology readiness level 5 (TRL5) for continuous production of biobased monomers (at least 100 g), such as adipic acid or ɛ-caprolactone. Thus, the LivMat project supports the transition towards the circular economy and the European Green Deal by developing material- and energy-efficient bioreactor platforms beyond the current state-of-art technologies for chemical production. In the future, these cat-LM bioreactors could be transferred to environmental or space biotechnological sectors.
The overall cat-LMs development and their applications for producing bio-monomers, including CO2 sequestering, will be subjected to life cycle assessment (LCA) in the context of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). This will enable us to estimate the environmental impacts and address socio-ecological benefits that support several global societal challenges (the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 2, 9, 12, and 13).
The project news can be found at: https://home.uni-leipzig.de/livmat/en/about-livemat/