Adrie Straathof Group

Welcome to the Bioprocess Integration webpage

To produce chemicals and fuels, replacing fossil feedstocks by renewable resources is crucial for achieving sustainability. Biotechnology can play a major role in this, because microorganisms and enzymes can perform specific conversions of the renewable carbon sources (biomass and CO₂) as well as carbon sources derived from those (carbohydrates, CO, …). These conversions require energy, which should also be renewable (from biomass again, or renewable electricity, for example).

The actual microbial or enzymatic conversion should fit in a network of chemical and biochemical conversions, including many separation steps. Lab-scale testing of such steps is required and feasible, but the goal is a full-scale process.

While collaborating with other groups that can provide suitable natural or novel microorganisms, the Straathof group focuses on the following areas:

• Novel production processes of chemicals and fuels from biomass and CO2 on basis of microbial and enzymatic conversions
• In-situ product recovery using crystallization, adsorption, extraction, membrane permeation, and stripping
• Model-based and experimental studies for achieving economically and environmentally sustainable integrated bioprocesses
• Kinetics and thermodynamics for biotechnological processes