Umeå University – Bio4Energy

Season’s Greetings from Bio4Energy

18 December, 2024/in News/by Anna Strom

As the season draws to a close, Bio4Energy wants to wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

This will be the last news post from Bio4Energy, from this publisher. Communications Anna Strom is leaving Bio4Energy at the end of 2024, but plans to be available by e-mail until the last week of January 2025. Please click the link below, to contact her.

Greatest thanks for this time to our researchers, collaboration partners, stakeholders, friends and colleagues.

With best regards,

Anna Strom

Bio4Energy Contact
Anna Strom, Bio4Energy Communications

From left: Nils Skoglund, Kajsa Sigfridsson Clauss and Konstantin Klementiev; hosting a workshop at Umeå, Sweden in November 2024.

©AnnaStrom

Breaking Down Benefits of Using Brilliant X-ray Light to Know Bio-based Materials: Workshop

20 November, 2024/in News/by Anna Strom

Bio4Energy scientists and partners are offering an opportunity for researchers to learn more about the benefits of applying for time to make experiments aided by brilliant X-ray light, at so-called synchrotron facilities, to study the inside of materials.

The partners are hosting a workshop 27 November at Umeå, Sweden; both for on-site and online participation. Sweden, where the scientists are based, is host to the world’s first fourth-generations synchrotron, the MAX IV Laboratory at Lund.

Synchrotrons are machines—giant particle accelerators—imagined as a tool for advancing science beyond what the forefathers of science deemed possible. With the aid of specialised staff, guest researchers can have a material that they want to know X-rayed with powerful light beams to the point of literally knowing it inside out.

With the aid of specialised staff, guest researchers at synchrotrons can have a material that they want to know X-rayed with powerful light beams to the point of literally knowing it inside out.

“Synchrotrons are very much like Swiss army knives, but the various tools attached utilise the brilliant X-rays for almost all kinds of X-ray-based measurement techniques”, according to Nils Skoglund, associate professor at Umeå University.

“Each experimental station has [its] own set-up and is called a beamline, where there is great expertise in the specific analysis performed within the beamline staff”, he added.

The research environment Bio4Energy has two experienced synchrotron research coordinators in its ranks. Skoglund leads the research platform Environment and Nutrient Recycling, while Mikael Thyrel heads up Feedstock Pre-processing. Thyrel is also head of his university department at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Endless possibilities for study and observation

From Skoglund’s platform, researchers have used beamline time thoroughly to investigate oxidation states of certain elements inside nutrient-carrying materials. They drew on the Balder beamline at MAX IV, for this undertaking. At DanMAX beamline they looked at the distribution of crystalline phosphates in 3D, for biomass ash and biochars. Biochar is charcoal, sometimes modified, that is intended for organic use, as in soil, says Wikipedia.

“These are just some examples of how Bio4Energy researchers utilise our large-scale research infrastructure where we are awarded beamtime in international competition”, Skoglund said.

Bio4Energy researchers have used beamline time to investigate oxidation states of certain elements inside nutrient-carrying materials and the distribution of crystalline phosphates in 3D, for biomass ash and biochar.

As the name of his research platform suggests, Skoglund scientific focus is nutrient and resource recovery from the energy sector. The team at his laboratory design renewable fuels and, by doing so, aim to alter the quality of ash remaining from combustion or gasification of biomass.

Whereas the scientific community has spent decades debating whether biomass ash should be ‘brought back’ to forest soils as a fertilizer, Skoglund has remained steadfast in his replies to Communications that it depends what is in the ash.

“Even though the goal is common, the desired fuel blend compositions are likely different for the forestry sector, agricultural sector, and waste streams from society”, he cautions on his university researcher’s profile.

As far as synchrotron research goes, Skoglund recommends a book by Swedish professor Jan-Erik Rubensson with the title of, Synchrotron Radiation – An everyday application of special relativity;

“So, it is not really correct to identify a specific type of research that could be conducted at a synchrotron—it is more about what phenomenon you want to observe with the brilliant X-ray light available”.

Event information and registration

Workshop on Synchrotron Measurements – Bio4Energy

Contact

Nils Skoglund, Bio4Energy Environment and Nutrient Recycling — Affiliation with Umeå University

Change of Leader at Bio4Energy Environment, Nutrient Recycling – Bio4Energy

Video by courtesy of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, California, U.S.A. With special thanks to SLAC for spreading knowledge and for the permission to republish.

A so-called photobioreactor with microalgal content, in the laboratories of Christiane Funk and Martin Plöhn, both Bio4Energy. Photo by courtesy of Plöhn and Funk.

Researchers to Map Composition of Green Algae, Pave Way for Biotechnology Breakthroughs

4 November, 2024/in News/by Anna Strom

Bio4Energy’s research team dedicated to creating applications from green algae have won funds to investigate the composition of cell walls in microalgae. These are microscopic algae that are not visible to the unaided eye, used to produce algal biomass for use in biotechnology applications.

Christiane Funk and students at Umeå University, Sweden hope to develop much needed information on the mechanisms that govern buildup and breakdown of the cell wall in these Chlorophyta algae, with the aim of allowing researchers worldwide more easily to design biotechnology applications that are cost and energy efficient.

Last week, national funder Swedish Research Council – VR announced its decision to support a four-year project.

The researchers aim to find out which enzymes are involved in making the cell wall mouldable and the way in which this plasticity enables – or could enable – the green algae to cope with environmental stressors. They also aim to map the transport of carbon, which is known to fluctuate, inside the cell.

With this knowledge in hand, they want to look into ways to manipulate the cell wall for better outcomes in the design of biotechnology applications.

“This proposal aims to address a critical gap in research, by investigating the biosynthesis and modification of the cell wall of Chlorophyta microalgae. We will gain insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the microalgal cell wall, its plasticity and perception of the environment”.

“Despite their promise as a sustainable feedstock for biotechnological applications, the use of microalgae has been hindered by high monetary and energy costs associated with the processing steps that follow cultivation, particularly the harvesting of algal biomass and extraction of valuable compounds”, Funk and colleagues wrote in their project application;

“This proposal aims to address this critical gap in research, by investigating the biosynthesis and modification of the cell wall of Chlorophyta microalgae. We will gain insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the microalgal cell wall, its plasticity and perception of the environment”.

Over the last decade, Bio4Energy’s research teams studying microalgae have worked diligently to lay a foundation for production, scale up and demonstration of algal biomass for use in consumer products and as an agent in water purification in industrial facilities.

The two teams focus on green and blue-green microalgae, respectively. Francesco Gentili and colleagues, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, run development facilities in collaboration with regional energy utility Umeå Energi, at Dåva just off Umeå, in northern Sweden.

Project title: Not Just Another Brick in the Wall – Advancing Microalgal Biotechnology through Cell Wall Research

Project leader: Christiane Funk, Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion Technologies – Affiliation with Umeå University

Duration: 2025 – 2028

Related projects

Revitalising forest waste into microalgal and bacterial cellulose membranes with tailored properties for sustainable food packaging, Green Tech – Bio4Energy

Circular and sustainable production of bioplastics with the help of photosynthetic microorganisms – Proof of concept – Bio4Energy

Waste2Plastic – Production of bioplastic from algal biomass generated from wastewater – Bio4Energy

Sweden’s Bioeconomy Arena to Open by Early 2025: Bio4Energy Researchers Stopped by – Bio4Energy

Breakthrough Innovation: Hydrogels from Norwegian Kelp to Be Commercialised – Bio4Energy

RISE

Giant Park for Development of Bio-based Products, Materials, Opens in Northern Sweden

14 October, 2024/in News/by Anna Strom

Development park Bioeconomy Arena opened today, at Örnsköldsvik in northern Sweden.

It is a 2,400 square metre park for development of products and materials from bio-based input material, such as residue from forestry operations or bio-based waste from pulp and paper making.

Processum Biorefinery Cluster, Bio4Energy’s strategic collaboration partner, stands host to the Arena. It is part of an industrial development called Domsjoe Development Area. Its centre player Domsjö Fabriker is a full-scale biorefinery, owned by Aditya Birla Group of India.

“Sweden’s most interesting environment for development of bio-based products and materials is taking a large step forward. Together, we represent the entire value chain from research to industrial production”, said Emil Källström, CEO at SEKAB, a company in the Bio4Energy Industrial Network, based at the development area.

In September 2022 the mother company RISE Research Institutes of Sweden inaugurated the first leg of a large investment in biorefinery test beds nationally, with Piteå and Örnsköldsvik as hubs for biorefinery pilot and demonstration facilities.

“Here large companies will meet tech companies in expansion and create new possibilities”, said RISE CEO Malin Frenning, referring to Bioeconomy Arena.

“The pilot hall… also has the potential to attract international firms that want to place new research units in the creative environment here”, Frenning said.

Bioeconomy Arena, Örnsköldsvik, Sweden

Three-story development park
Surface area of 2,405 square metres
Planned capacity for 130 – 150 test beds
Main technologies developed: Pulping, chemicals, carbon capture and storage, carbon capture and use, plus industrial biotechnology

Source: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden (press release). With special thanks to Frida Karlsson Niska, Head of Communication, Bioeconomy. The article also contains information collected by Bio4Energy Communications for previous news articles.

Related projects

Waste2Plastic – Production of bioplastic from algal biomass generated from wastewater – Bio4Energy

Activated and non-activated biochars and hydrochars from forestry-related waste streams for removal of environmental contaminants from sediments – Bio4Energy

Two strategies for preparation of carbon materials from well-defined hydrolysis lignins for energy storage and their life-cycle assessment and life-cycle cost – Bio4Energy

Investigating the electrochemical functionality of Norway spruce bark biochar and polymer composites – Bio4Energy

RISE to Invest SEK350 Million in Its Biorefinery Test Bed Environments – Bio4Energy

Martin Plöhn and Christiane Funk show green algae and sample plastic flakes in their research laboratory at Umeå University, Sweden. Photos by ©AnnaStrom.

©AnnaStrom

Large Project Granted for Making Affordable Bio-based Plastics, Using Algae as Feed

1 October, 2024/in News/by Anna Strom

A consortium of Bio4Energy researchers has scored a grant for developing bio-based plastic to deliver prototypes of consumer products by project end, three years from now.

It involves a number of industrial and business partners who will provide either facilities and input material for experimental trials or develop consumer products, such as lampshade prototypes and a foam to go into packaging materials, respectively. The resulting products will be tested for their biodegradability.

It involves a number of industrial and business partners who will provide either facilities and input material for experimental trials or develop consumer products, such as lampshade prototypes and a foam to go into packaging materials, respectively. The resulting products will be tested for their biodegradability.

Global plastics production has exploded since the early 20th century and virtually all of it derives from fossil-based petrochemicals. In 2018, it stood at 359 million metric tons per annum.

At the end of life, over three fourths of plastics go into landfill. The breakdown of plastic made from petrochemicals generally takes hundreds of years and comes with leakage into the environment, especially for the kinds that degrade to microplastics during the composting process.

Plastic pollution has become an urgent global problem.

Innovation-to-consumer product value chain

In northern Sweden, Bio4Energy experts on the development and use of algae biomass for products and applications are proposing to tackle the issue head on by linking up actors in a research innovation-to-consumer product value chain.

The Swedish Energy Agency—which is not only a government agency, but also a research funder—has agreed to part sponsor the development of more affordable polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), which is a type of bio polyester that has the moldability of traditional plastics.

So far, PHA as a plastic alternative has had limited uptake, mainly because of the high cost of the feed for bacteria that make it. Here is where the Bio4Energy research comes in.

The scientists will identify strains of microalgae which, using sunlight and carbon dioxide, make biomass that the bacteria like to eat. The algae themselves will feed off industrial flue gases and wastewater produced at premises of regional energy utility Umeå Energi, which the green algae help clean during the while.

The scientists will identify strains of microalgae which, using sunlight and carbon dioxide (CO₂), make biomass that the bacteria like to eat. The algae themselves will feed off industrial flue gases and wastewater produced at premises of regional energy utility Umeå Energi, which the green algae help clean during the while. The project also involves a utility that delivers drinking water, as well as handles sewage water treatment and waste recycling in the greater Umeå area; Vakin.

Algae research expert Christiane Funk will lead the project from Umeå University (UMU) and collaborate with Francesco Gentili, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), whose team operates development facilities at the Umeå Energi Dåva site. His colleague Carmen Cristescu will perform a life cycle assessment of the process. Bio4Energy programme manager Leif Jönsson’s group at UMU is also part of the project.

“We are going to use algae as feed for bacteria producing PHA, a type of bio polyester. The bacterial cultivation will be scaled up to litres by RISE Processum”, professor Funk said.

Membership company Processum at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden is one Bio4Energy’s strategic partners. Bio4Energy alumnus Pooja Dixit will lead this part of the work.

High cost of PHA limits market uptake

PHA as an alternative to petrochemical polymers for plastic production has had limited market uptake because of its high cost.

“It would be perfect to use PHA instead of plastic. We try to make it cheaper so that PHA can compete with fossil-based plastic and we also try to make the process more sustainable by using microalgae. We have to test which bacteria like which type of sugars [or carbohydrates] to produce PHA”, professor Funk said.

“It would be perfect to use PHA instead of plastic. We try to make it cheaper so that PHA can compete with fossil-based plastic and we also try to make the process more sustainable by using microalgae. We have to test which bacteria like which type of sugars to produce PHA”.

Downstream, two companies stand ready to turn the PHA into products.

In Stockholm, Interested Times Gang will take PHA from the project, to attempt 3D printing lampshades.

SME Cass Materials at Örnsköldsvik aim to mix the PHA with starch to improve an existing form of packing material in terms of its environmental footprint. The company describes the material as a “next generation bio-based foam that is lightweight with good mechanical strength and insulation properties for the packaging industry”.

Finally, Biocompost of Skellefteå is going to test the materials produced, particularly the ones that have a starch component, to see how long they take to biodegrade.

“We are going to work on the microalgae and the bacteria… and feed the carbohydrate to the bacteria in a two-step process”, Funk explained;

“We are going to test different algal strains [to ascertain] which produce the best feed for the bacteria”.

Globally, nine per cent of plastic waste is recycled and 12 per cent is incinerated. In countries that have ocean shorelines, each year between 4.8 million and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic waste are discarded into the sea. Source: Encylopaedia Britannica.

Project title: Waste2Plastic – Circular economy, recycling of CO2, nitrogen, phosphorus and water for bioplastics in a sustainable society

Funders: Swedish Energy Agency’s strategic innovation program RE:Source, which focuses on developing circular and resource-efficient material flows that are within planetary “boundaries”. The joint contribution of industrial partners is expected to match the SEA grant.

Bio4Energy research leaders involved

Christiane Funk, project manager and Leif Jönsson – Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion, affiliation with Umeå University

Francesco Gentili – Bio4Energy Environment and Nutrient Recycling, affiliation with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Carmen Cristescu – Bio4Energy Systems Analysis and Bioeconomy, affiliation with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Lalie Kossatz and Pooja Dixit – Processum at RISE

Business partners: Umeå Energi, Vakin, Cass Materials, ITG Studio, Biocompost

Related projects

Circular and sustainable production of bioplastics with the help of photosynthetic microorganisms – Proof of concept – Bio4Energy

Waste2Plastic – Production of bioplastic from algal biomass generated from wastewater – Bio4Energy

Sweden’s Bioeconomy Arena to Open by Early 2025: Bio4Energy Researchers Stopped by – Bio4Energy

Breakthrough Innovation: Hydrogels from Norwegian Kelp to Be Commercialised – Bio4Energy

Stina Jansson (far right, centre) and team are sampling all post-incineration streams to gauge the presence and level of per- and polyfluorinated substances. Dåva combined heat and power plant at Umeå, Sweden. Photos by Ewa Weidemann, Anna Strom and UMU photographers.

Bio4Energy

Pioneering Work to Study ‘Forever’ Chemicals PFAS Targets Wastewater Treatment in Incineration Plants

17 June, 2024/in News/by Anna Strom

Backgrounder. Over the last decade, environmental chemists aiming to map and close the loop on toxic chemicals in the handling and incineration of household waste, or in combustion facilities in the bio-based sector, have increasingly turned their attention to per- and polyfluoroalkyls, PFAS.

Since the 1950s, this very large group of manmade chemicals has been used in consumer products to repel water and oil. Experts are increasingly referring to them as “forever” chemicals, because of their extreme persistence in environment, and which may also spread over wide areas through contact with water.

Even though PFAS are used worldwide in detergents, cosmetics, non-stick coatings and dirt or water-repellent textiles, their fate and impact at the end of life are largely unknown.

Academia and industry in long-standing collaboration

Environmental chemists, led by Bio4Energy’s first programme manager Stellan Marklund, were leaders in the field of isolating and assessing dioxins formed as a result of operating waste-to-energy plants.

Dioxins and dioxin-like substances, including PCBs, are persistent organic pollutants (POPs) regulated globally by the Stockholm Convention of the United Nations. POPs can travel long distances from the source of emission and bioaccumulate in food chains.

This long-standing collaboration with industry in northern Sweden, and notably with regional energy utility Umeå Energi continues with associate professor Stina Jansson of Umeå University. It draws on the knowledge obtained and infrastructure put in place to tackle the more recently seen risk of PFAS leaking to soils, air and water as a result of waste storage and incineration.

This long-standing collaboration with industry in northern Sweden, and notably with regional energy utility Umeå Energi continues with Marklund’s former student, associate professor Stina Jansson of Umeå University. It draws on the knowledge obtained and infrastructure put in place to tackle the more recently seen threat of PFAS leaking to soils, air and water as a result of waste storage and incineration.

“We do not know the fate of PFAS in waste incineration. It is a black box”, Jansson said.

Her team, however, has started tackling the problem from the ground up.

Samples taken throughout the regional combined heat and power plant at Dåva, collected by Sofie Björklund, Eva Weidemann and Alana Lansky, point to the presence of PFAS in all intra-plant waste or residual streams. In a recent scientific article, the team also shows that the common practice of supplementing household waste with digested sludge from industrial operations significantly increases the level of PFAS in flue gases, ash or process water from waste incineration.

The secret may be in the water

“We know that there are considerable amounts of PFAS in waste water sludge… and have located accumulations at the water purification stage. We see froth and even foaming in the process water”, according to Jansson.

People who go out in nature may recall seeing this type of froth or foam in shallow lake waters or, in certain countries, at the exit of waste water pipes, which could be a sign of PFAS pollution.

Thanks to the encompassing work to identify, charaterise and capture dioxins in similar contexts, the scientific researchers are able to draw parallels and make educated guesses about which types of technology can be used to rein in the lion’s share of PFAS compounds that remain onsite at the end of the incineration process.

“We are working together with other researchers to understand [how and what triggers] the breakdown of these compounds”, Jansson said.

At the Umeå cluster, the researchers are focusing on hydrothermal carbonisation. Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States of America, are targeting a method that involves using plasma for the breakdown.

“We may go into collaboration with them”, Jansson added.

Other techniques being tested elsewhere include membrane technology and ozone treatment.

“Our method of testing the process water is unique… This process water can be leachate of landfills, for example. Perhaps this will be where we can stop the pollution”, Jansson said.

New for July 2024: Press article, Helios Innovations takes the fight against eternal chemicals • PFAS – GAMINGDEPUTY

New for September 2024: News by Phys.org, Forever chemicals persist through waste incineration, researcher finds

Scientific article

Distribution of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs ) in a waste-to-energy plant: tracking PFASs in internal residual streams. In Environmental Science and Technology, ISSN 0013-936X, E-ISSN 1520-5851, Vol. 58, no 19, p. 8457-8463

Contact

Stina Jansson, Bio4Energy Environment and Nutrient Recycling

Change of Leader at Bio4Energy Environment, Nutrient Recycling – Bio4Energy

Related Projects

Activated and non-activated biochars and hydrochars from forestry-related waste streams for removal of environmental contaminants from sediments – Bio4Energy

Bio4Energy

September Start for Bio4Energy’s Training to Scale up Bio-based Innovations

25 April, 2024/in News/by Anna Strom

Bio4Energy’s training on the scale up of bio-based innovations is starting again in September. The application is open as of today.

The backdrop is substantial new investments in test beds and development facilities in the region of northern Sweden where the research environment is based.

“We will go onsite visiting not only pilot [installations] of different types, but whole factories in our network of actors based along the coast at Örnsköldsvik, Piteå and Umeå.

“We will see this great variation and speak to the developers themselves”, said course coordinator Francesco Gentili.

“We will go onsite visiting not only pilot installations of different types, but whole factories in our network of actors based along the coast at Örnsköldsvik, Piteå and Umeå. We will see this great variation and speak to the developers themselves”.

He is not only an associate professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, but also the man behind facilities for microalgae research and development run in collaboration with regional energy utility Umeå Energi.

Biorefinery Pilot Research, as the course is called, is the flagship of the Bio4Energy Graduate School on the Innovative Use of Biomass.

Bio4Energy draws together the regions foremost universities and institutes dealing with the development of methods and tools for conducting biorefinery based on woody residues and industrial organic waste. As such, it is on a mission to provide education and training to help provide the sector with knowledge workers of tomorrow’s bioeconomy and advanced students with top-of-the-line education.

The course is offered as a mixture of intensive days of onsite visits—starting 2-4 September at Piteå—with time in between where students work to develop their own projects. They do this either by implementing an aspect of upscaling in their own PhD project or; if they are postdoctoral fellows established as researchers; they may create something new.

“We speak to and learn from capable fundamental researchers, all the way up to industrialists”.

“We speak to [and learn from] capable fundamental researchers, all the way up to industrialists”, Gentili told Bio4Energy Communications.

The group goes on study visits to well-known companies in the sector such as SunPine and the large pilot LTU Green Fuels at Piteå, as well as their institute partner in Bio4Energy, RISE Energy Technology Center.

Further south, at Örnsköldsvik, key contacts in the Bio4Energy Industrial Network will show them the new RISE Bioeconomy Arena, Domsjö Fabriker, SEKAB and RISE Processum. At Umeå, finally, Gentili will showcase the algae pilot and include a tour of Arevo, which has gone from being a Bio4Energy researcher upstart to a full-grown company offering a new kind of plant nutrition product that does not create toxic leakage, while being highly efficient.

“We stay, eat and study together and it creates the opportunity for networking”, Gentili said, adding a reflection on the bigger picture;

“It creates job opportunities. We train people to know the infrastructure and strengthen the collaboration in our region”.

Contacts

Francesco Gentili — Course coordinator Biorefinery Pilot Research

Dimitris Athanassiadis — Coordinator for the Bio4Energy Graduate School

Bio4Energy Graduate School

Biorefinery Pilot Research, 5 ECTS

Course Brochure and Application

New Coordinator for Graduate School: Course Starts in 2024

Spin-off Wins Prize for ‘Great Potential’ of Plant Nutrition Products with Minimal Footprint

RISE to Invest SEK350 Million in Its Biorefinery Test Bed Environments

In his PhD thesis, researcher Martin Plöhn lays out a scheme for wastewater treatment using microalgae. Photos by Anna Strom and Umea University photographers.

Microalgae that Thrive in Cold Climate Clean Wastewater, Give Biomass for Renewable Plastics

20 March, 2024/in News/by Anna Strom

A research report—covering five years of investigations—shows that microalgae grown in cold and dark conditions may not only be made to thrive on their own, but also remove the heavy metal content of industrial wastewater that conventional treatment plants do not filter out.

The high performing algal strain selected also turned out to produce ample carbohydrate biomass suitable for making bio-based plastics.

The academic research team behind the findings is based in northern Sweden; where winters are long, cold and dark. However, the cluster—including the research environment Bio4Energy and the MicroBioRefine project—have some of Scandinavia’s leading scientists in the field of developing biomass from blue-green algae as a renewable input material for making products.

The research report, by recent PhD graduate Martin Plöhn, will be released by Bio4Energy’s lead partner Umeå University as soon as details of its major findings have been cleared for publication in the chief biotechnology journal of a well-known publisher.

The researchers have identified a common and locally available strain, Chlorella vulgaris, as a top performer among microalgae when it comes to cleaning wastewater of cadmium, copper and lead. There was no additional source of energy or lighting added.

In a nutshell, the researchers have identified a common and locally available strain, Chlorella vulgaris, as a top performer among microalgae when it comes to cleaning wastewater of cadmium, copper and lead. The process has been tested in a research laboratory. There was no additional source of energy or lighting added to indoor room temperatures, daytime indoor (fluorescent) lighting and natural daylight.

Cleaning with microalgae after conventional wastewater treatment, to meet legal standards

Turned into a fully-fledged technology, the scheme would allow industries whose activities leave substantial amounts of wastewater in their wake, to shave the last one-to-two micrograms of heavy metals off wastewater already treated in a conventional treatment plant. The scheme comes with optional provisions for reuse in industry of the heavy metals thus recycled.

“Our microalgae can be used to treat wastewater to remove pollutants and produce freshwater…. We do not want to replace the conventional treatment system, but come in at the end and take away the heavy metal content that is still higher than the law”, doctor Plöhn told Bio4Energy Communications.

“Our microalgae can be used to remove pollutants and treat wastewater to produce freshwater… We do not want to replace the conventional treatment system, but come in at the end and take away the heavy metal content that is still higher than the law”.

In the second part of the microalgae project, Chlorella vulgaris again outperformed other strains tested when it came to producing polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), a type of plastic, via bacterial breakdown of the biomass. The process has been tested in up to 25 litres of wastewater at a time, in a research laboratory.

Checking for unwanted emissions and scaling up

After successful proof of concept trials, the researchers have received expressions of interest for testing the concept on a larger scale from Bio4Energy partners at the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. Plöhn and colleagues now are looking for industrial partners.

“We are looking for people who could be interested in the forest industry, with the message that we can add value… to existing processes”, he said.

The researchers collaborate with colleagues at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences to perform life-cycle assessment studies; to double check that their concept is sustainable in terms of minimising greenhouse gas emissions. Technically, the algae consume carbon dioxide down to net zero, but the researchers want to make sure that the system is water tight.

Dissertation in hand, Plöhn is not about to finish working on the project anytime soon. The microalgae also produce lipids and protein. Moreover there is the bio fertilizer route that remains to be explored.

“I see opportunities to explore this concept beyond carbohydrates. There will always be wastewater that needs to be treated. We need to use what we have right now”, he said.

Since late March Plöhn is a staff scientist at Umeå University and industry representatives are invited to contact him and the research team there for at least another nine months.

New for September 2024: News by NewsGram, Researchers aim to create biodegradable plastic – from algae (newsgram.com)

PhD Dissertation

Revealing the potential of Nordic microalgae — Turning waste streams into resources

Bio4Energy Contacts

Doctor Martin Plöhn — Affiliation with Umeå University

PhD Supervisor, Professor Christiane Funk — Affiliation with Umeå University

Related Projects

For more information

MicroBioRefine project

Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion

©AnnaStrom

Training on Wood Biology, Biotechnology Fills Gap for Advanced Students of Biorefinery

23 February, 2024/in News/by Anna Strom

Mini FEATURE. Northern Sweden, last week was home to advanced students affiliated with universities in Finland, Czech Republic, Belgium and Sweden—spending an intensive week at the city of Umeå—to learn about the frontline of science of wood biology and biotechnology.

Hosted by a leading wood biologists, Ewa Mellerowicz of the Umeå Plant Science Centre and Bio4Energy, this ad-hoc training is offered for the second time to equip advanced students interested in wood biology, tree breeding and biorefinery development with an edge.

“This course fills a gap and provides an overview of biological processes, explaining how they lead to developing different kinds of wood, and how they affect wood traits of economic importance”, the online course description says:

“Lectures and seminars are given by world experts in the field”.

“This course fills a gap and provides an overview of biological processes, explaining how they lead to developing different kinds of wood, and how they affect wood traits of economic importance. Lectures and seminars are given by world experts in the field”.

When I stop by, the students are in full swing presenting posters to each other, a common feature both in advanced education and at scientific conferences.

“It is going great”, Hannele Tuominen, professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and platform leader in Bio4Energy, greets me.

“We have 20 students and here they learn to attack the issues we are discussing from every angle. We have a lineup of experts here to teach them [on location]. This is our strength”, Tuominen says.

“Most students have a molecular biology or wood chemistry background”, Mellerowicz fills in. She also has an affiliation with the Umeå branch of SLU. She agrees with a smile that it is great but exhausting;

“The students are here all week with a full programme in the daytime and then social activities in the evening”.

Most of them are much too busy liaising with each other to talk to me, but Bio4Energy student Anna Renström of Umeå University, is here just for the evening poster session.

“We have a new publication on wood formation in hybrid aspen that lets us know more about the lignin formation. Now we need to apply [the concept] to other species such as spruce and we need to conduct field trials to understand whether it really works”, she says expertly.

Renström is being supervised by Tuominen and others who are part of the teaching line up and I think to myself that it shows.

Contact

Ewa Mellerowicz, Umeå Plant Science Centre — Affiliation with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

For more information

Wood Biology and Biotechnology, 5 ECTS

Bio4Energy Forest-based Feedstocks

Umeå Plant Science Centre

©AnnaStrom

R&I on Bio Based in EU projects: ‘We Could Be More Proactive’

8 February, 2024/in News/by Anna Strom

Bio4Energy’s new coordinator for member organisation Bio-based Industries’ Consortium (BIC), Carlos Martín of Umeå University, is in Brussels, Belgium to network with industry members with a view to lay the foundations for an EU project.

February 8 BIC members met to network with companies, consultants and academics. The aim is jointly to apply for funds from the Circular Bio-based Joint Undertaking (CBE JU), which is a partnership between BIC and the European Union.

“On the Bio4Energy platforms we have expertise and knowledge of value for forming strong EU projects”, Martín said.

“We are interested in the topic Biotech routes to obtain bio-based chemicals or materials to replace animal-derived ones”.

“We are interested in the topic Biotech routes to obtain bio-based chemicals or materials to replace animal-derived ones”, he added.

As Martín points out, there is a lot at stake. The CBE JU partnership itself is worth €2 billion, according to its website.

It corresponds to the part of the Horizon Europe research and innovation (R&I) programme that is concerned with “advancing competitive circular bio-based industries”.

More specifically, it aims to accelerate the development of bio-based innovative solutions and their market deployment, while ensuring a high level of environmental performance of bio-based industrial systems.

“We could be more proactive toward partnerships and programs under Horizon 2020, including the [Joint Undertaking]”, Martin said;

“We have strong research that competes well with that of groups leading successful project proposals”.

Carlos Martín Medina is a long-standing member of the research environment Bio4Energy and its research platform Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion. He has been part of developing state-of-the-art pre-treatment methods that allows for easier breakdown of woody biomass for conversion to liquid biofuels, together with current programme manager Leif Jönsson of Umeå University.

Having come to lean toward bio-based materials, Martín spearheaded a large collaboration project with Bolivia to make use of the abundant residue from the country’s production of quinoa, a staple food. In 2019, he took up a professorship at the Inland University of Applied Sciences in Norway, but continues to do research for Bio4Energy and Umeå University on investigating spent mushroom substrate as an input material for making products.

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Carlos Martín

For more information

Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking

Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion

Bio4Energy Researchers Meet to Usher in New Developments on Energy, Material Production – Bio4Energy

Quinoa Project Classifies New Building Block for Biorefinery – Bio4Energy

Tag Archive for: Umeå University

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