The BIOCON-CO2 consortium was represented at the Clostridium Conference XV in Freising, Germany this September by Ira Lauer of Fraunhofer IME, who presented her team’s most recent research at the event’s poster session.
The research examined the Clostridium C. ljungdahlii, which can metabolise industrial off-gases containing carbon dioxide to several products. The poster focused on the effects of targeted alcohols, which were toxic for C. ljungdahlii in higher concentrations. The researchers suggest that through adaptation, process development and genetic engineering, the strains could be tailored to produce valuable alcohols in high amounts, using industrial CO2 as a carbon source. This recycling of CO2 into high-value commodities is a key objective of the BIOCON-CO2 project.
Clostridia are a promising group of microorganisms which are of great interest to researchers due to their biocatalytic diversity, which provide useful features for fuel and chemical production. Although this group includes harmful pathogens such as C. difficile, the majority are entirely benign. The Clostridium Conference, which takes place once every two years, is regarded as the world’s leading forum for research on solventogenic and acetogenic Clostridia, attracting prominent figures from research and industry alike.
Clostridium research is just one of a number of promising lines of enquiry for CO2 re-use technologies that the BIOCON-CO2 project will explore over its four-year span. To stay updated on project activities and results, subscribe to the BIOCON-CO2 newsletter here.
The poster presented at the conference can be downloaded here.