How methane and CO2 can be used to combat plastic pollution
Every year, Country Overshoot Day marks the day on which a country's annual biocapacity budget would be exhausted if everyone in the world lived as much as its population. In Germany, this day falls on May 3 in 2025 - more than three months earlier than in the previous year. The b-ACTmatter research and transfer center at Leipzig University is researching innovative approaches to counter the growing scarcity of resources in the face of an increasing world population through sustainable production processes and circular technologies. The REPLACER project is developing generations of hybrid living materials. They are designed to reduce plastic pollution with the help of CO2 and methane, says project manager Dr. Rohan Karande in an interview:
Greenhouse gas emissions, plastic pollution and protein shortages are existential threats and pose enormous challenges for Europe and the world. How can science turn these threats into opportunities?
As part of the REPLACER project funded by M-ERA.Net, we are developing a new generation of hybrid living materials (HLMs) together with the Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM) in Leipzig, the University of Latvia in Riga and the Romanian technology company Holisun. These HLMs are designed to capture greenhouse gas emissions, reduce plastic pollution and provide a sustainable source of alternative proteins. We develop the HLMs by cultivating microbial biofilm consortia in porous plastic structures, especially in recycled PET. By utilizing the synergistic effects of the biofilm-forming photoautotrophic and methanotrophic strains, a high biomass for sustainable protein substitutes in food and feed will be efficiently produced.
How can this be achieved?
By incorporating biofilms of mixed species into porous materials, we can bind greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane - as produced in biogas plants - and convert them into valuable microbial proteins to close the economic cycle. This HLM-based process offers a sustainable alternative to fossil feedstocks and addresses both environmental concerns and the growing demand for proteins. We have currently developed lab-scale HLM-based photobioreactors (Technology Readiness Level 3) that can produce several grams of biomass per day.
What's next for this technology?
The next milestone is scaling up to one kilogram of biomass per day. With the support of SMILE, the start-up initiative at Leipzig University, the team is researching future applications and commercialization strategies. Founding a start-up at this early stage would be ambitious, but it is a possible next step. This interdisciplinary project shows how scientific innovation can bring about meaningful change by transforming today's environmental problems into solutions for a sustainable future.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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