A high-load fermenter as a supplement to the established stirred tank fermenter could make biogas plants more economical. This is the conclusion reached by the Bio-Smart project of Münster University of Applied Sciences and the company PlanET Biogastechnik. This is because the high water content of residual materials such as liquid manure not only requires large fermentation tanks in conventional plants, but also a lot of heating energy.
It is the single largest investment in Bayer's crop protection business in 40 years and a clear commitment to the site in Monheim: the Leverkusen-based company plans to spend EUR 220 million to build a new research and development center here, thus strengthening its commitment to sustainable agriculture. In the presence of North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister President Hendrik Wüst, the construction site for the new buildings in Monheim was opened at the end of August with the traditional groundbreaking ceremony.
Molds are not only a health risk. They are also important microbial cell factories in biotechnology. The first process of this kind was the fermentation of citric acid more than 100 years ago. In the present, numerous other acids, enzymes and pharmaceutically active molecules have been added. How productive these manufacturing processes are also depends on the spatial structure of the fungal tangles in the bioreactor. A German research team has now succeeded in analyzing these structures.
"In 1923, the world's first commercial methanol plant was built in Leuna. We now build on this success story by completely reinventing the process of methanol production at the same site exactly 100 years later." This is how Christoph Zehe from the climate tech start-up C1 describes the Leuna100 project that has just been launched, in which those involved want to develop a process for producing green methanol that is suitable for industrial use. The German Federal Ministry of Transport is funding the project with 10.4 million euros over three years.
Invertebrates such as flying insects play a key role in the freshwater ecosystem: they filter water, transport nutrients and break down organic material. These abilities have long made them an indicator of water quality. In a long-term study, an international team of researchers has investigated how species diversity has developed in European rivers.
Microorganisms such as bacteria, yeasts or molds are masters of material conversion and have always been an important tool in biotechnology. With their help, materials can be produced that are naturally biobased and biodegradable - bioplastics, for example. But not all bacteria of interest to biotechnology work as desired, because they are difficult to "tame." Researchers at the Institute of Microbiology and Molecular Biology at Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) have now found a way to achieve this by controlling their gene expression.
Even in remote parts of the world, such as the Arctic, researchers now find microplastic particles. But the tiny plastic particles don't just float in the water and harm marine animals and ecosystems. The particles also enter the atmosphere via wind and waves, as a study by a German-Norwegian research team shows.
Photosynthesis is by far the most important metabolic process on earth. Without it, there would be no life. With the help of sunlight, plants, algae and also some bacteria can convert water and carbon dioxide (CO2) into sugar and oxygen. Plants need CO2 to generate the necessary energy and thus biomass for their growth. As a result of increasingly frequent droughts, however, the photosynthetic behavior of plants has changed within the day, as an international study by researchers from South Korea, the USA and Germany shows.
Leaf fleas are a horror for fruit growers. The so-called psyllids sting the plant with their sucking mouthparts and suck out the plant sap. In this way, the parasitic leaf fleas sometimes cause high crop losses. Until now, fruit growers have tried to control the pest with the help of synthetic chemical pesticides. An international team of researchers with the participation of the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) has now, by chance, found a suitable antagonist in a parasitic fungus to eliminate the leaf flea in fruit growing in a natural way.
It has been seven years since chemists at the University of Konstanz presented a completely new class of plastics that resemble biomaterials in structure. The so-called mineral plastic was a hydrogel consisting of nanoparticles of calcium carbonate (lime) crosslinked with polyacrylic acid in water. Hardly any energy is consumed in its production, as room temperature is sufficient. It also has self-healing properties and is easily recyclable. But the mineral plastic had a crucial flaw: due to its chemical components, it was not biodegradable.