(German title: Die Bioraffinerie - Beiträge der Weißen Biotechnologie zum Umweltschutz)

The contributions of renewable raw materials and genetic engineering to environmental protection are often the subject of controversial public debate. The underlying concept provides teachers and students with a concrete insight into the variety of applications of both subject areas, potential synergies for current and future challenges as well as guidance for scientific work in theory and laboratory in separate courses. Participants are given project-oriented background information in specialist lectures as well as the practical application of modern techniques directly in the laboratory. In this way, a critical and relevant dialog between society and research is promoted, which should also encourage interest in courses of study in the field of science and technology.

The participants of the student course will realize the following practical fields of work in the laboratory parallel to the topic-specific lectures:

• Enzymatic hydrolysis of wood with subsequent fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a technical fermenter
• Cloning of a beta-galactosidase from the PCR of a gene to the production of a recombinant with subsequent heterologous enzyme expression by Escherichia coli.
• Process simulation of the material flows of an integrated biorefinery using Intelligen SuperProDesigner

The teacher course is thematically based on the student course, but due to time constraints will only include selected practical work from biorefinery and molecular biology in addition to process design. The focus is on conveying the technical background of a biorefinery, discussing the challenges of a raw material change and practical application examples for the use of the “biorefinery suitcase” (see below) in the course of teaching at schools. The following tasks represent concrete practical work:

• Enzymatic hydrolysis of wood with subsequent fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a technical fermenter
• Selected cloning techniques (PCR, DNA restriction, agarose gel electrophoresis)
• Induction of overexpression by Escherichia coli
• Process simulation of an integrated biorefinery using Intelligen SuperProDesigner

The “biorefinery case” can be borrowed by schools outside of the courses and offers teachers the opportunity to implement a biotechnological process with a technical fermenter directly in the school. In addition to the fermenter, this offer includes a reflectoquant for analysis and a laptop with the simulation software SuperProDesigner. Furthermore, sufficient information material on lesson design and theoretical background as well as information on practical implementation is provided in the form of a script, slides for the overhead projector and a DVD.