Biorefinery Conversions

The purpose of the Biorefinery Conversions research at AT-CERE is to create new knowledge for development of innovative and cost-efficient processes for production of chemicals, materials and biofuels from biomasses and industrial effluents by:
  • Harnessing the potential of mixed microbial consortia by optimizing the selection and enrichment process as well as the fermentation operating strategy
  • Applying thermodynamics as a tool to design microbial enrichments and to direct bioprocesses towards formation of the desired products
  • Providing knowledge on bioconversion kinetics to be applied for process modeling and optimization
  • Developing innovative process concepts for enhancing the bioconversion efficiency and improving the economics by applying cost-efficient pretreatment methods and membrane-based downstream processing
  • Designing and experimentally evaluating novel combined bioenergy and biorefinery concepts

 

 

Selected representative publications

Grimalt-Alemany A, Lezyk MJ, Lange L, Skiadas IV and Gavala HN (2018) Enrichment of syngas-converting Mixed Microbial Consortia for ethanol production and thermodynamics-based design of enrichment strategies. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 11, 198.

Burniol-Figols A, Varrone C, Le SB, Daugaard AE, Skiadas IV and Gavala HN (2018). Combined PHA and 1,3-propanediol production from crude glycerol: selective conversion of volatile fatty acids into PHA by mixed microbial consortia. Water Research, 136, 180-191.

Kalafatakis S, Braekevelt S, Vilhelmsen Carlsen NS, Lange L, Skiadas IV and Gavala HN (2017). On a novel strategy for water recovery and recirculation in biorefineries through application of forward osmosis membranes. Chemical Engineering Journal, 311, 209-216.

Burniol-Figols A, Cenian K, Skiadas IV and Gavala HN (2016) Integration of chlorogenic acid recovery and bioethanol production from spent coffee grounds. Biochemical Engineering Journal, 116, 54-64.

Baroi GN, Skiadas IV, Westermann P and Gavala HN (2015). Continuous fermentation of wheat straw hydrolysate by Clostridium tyrobutyricum with in-situ acids removal. Waste and Biomass Valorization, 6(3), 317-326.

Contact

Hariklia Nikolaos Gavala
Associate Professor
DTU Chemical Engineering
+45 45 25 61 96