(German title: Next Generation Biofilm - die "Rose von Jericho" der Biotechnologie)

The project relates to the objectives of the National Research Strategy BioEconomy 2030 in the field of action "Industrial utilisation of renewable raw materials". Food production and the production of energy and recyclable materials are increasingly competing with each other (plate-or-tank problem). One of the major challenges for the future is therefore to sustainably meet the growing demand for food, energy and recyclable materials while minimising the consumption of agricultural land, energy and water resources. The sustainable production of proteins (proteins), lipids (fats) and carbohydrates (sugars & polysaccharides) by cyanobacteria, microalgae or plants is of central importance here.

Cyanobacteria, for example, harbour an enormous pool of renewable biopharmaceuticals and fine chemicals. However, this potential is hardly being utilised as current production processes are too energy and resource intensive. In contrast, this project is the first to use photosynthesising, desiccation-tolerant biofilms (terrestrial cyanobacteria) for the steam-controlled production of bacterial polysaccharides and dyes. A resource- and energy-efficient process technology is used here, which is realised by means of a new generation of emersed photobioreactors (ePBR).