Bioprocess Engineering

Biopolymers

Plastic materials are ubiquitous in our daily life. 300 million tons of plastic are produced annually worldwide with a rising tendency of 4%. Plastics as well as glue are made from fossil fuels, which leads to increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Additionally, traditional plastics and glue do not degrade in the environment causing massive pollution of our ecosystems.

So-called bioplastics are a promising alternative to substitute conventional plastic materials. However, in 2017 over 50% of the produced bioplastics (1.2 million) were not biodegradable.

The main focus of the group is the investigation of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymers, which are produced from renewable resources and are fully biodegradable to CO2 and water in natural environments such as soil and sea. PHAs, polyester with comparable properties to conventional plastic materials, are produced by many microorganism for carbon and energy storage.

Biological glue especially mussel glue enables strong bonding even under water. It is non-toxic, non-mutagenic and biocompatible thus it can be degraded by the human body after medical use.

Publications

Gutschmann, B., Maldonado Simões, M., Schiewe, T., Schröter, E.S., Münzberg, M., Neubauer, P., Bockisch, A., Riedel, S.L., 2022. Continuous feeding strategy for polyhydroxyalkanoate production from solid waste animal fat at laboratory- and pilot-scale. Microb. Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.14104

Santolin, L., Waldburger, S., Neubauer, P., Riedel, S.L., 2021. Substrate-Flexible Two-Stage Fed-Batch Cultivations for the Production of the PHA Copolymer P(HB-co-HHx) With Cupriavidus necator Re2058/pCB113. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 9, 217. doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.623890

Saad, V., Gutschmann, B., Grimm, T., Widmer, T., Neubauer, P., Riedel, S.L., 2021. Low-quality animal by-product streams for the production of PHA-biopolymers: fats, fat/protein-emulsions and materials with high ash content as low-cost feedstocks. Biotechnol. Lett. 43, 579–587. doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-03065-y

Gutschmann, B., Bock, M.C.E., Jahns, S., Neubauer, P., Brigham, C.J., Riedel, S.L., 2021. Untargeted metabolomics analysis of Ralstonia eutropha during plant oil cultivations reveals the presence of a fucose salvage pathway. Sci. Rep. 11, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93720-9

Riedel, S.L., Brigham, C.J., 2020. Inexpensive and Waste Raw Materials for PHA Production, in: Koller, M. (Ed.), The Handbook of Polyhydroxyalkanoates. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp. 203–221. doi.org/10.1201/9780429296611-10

Bartels, M., Gutschmann, B., Widmer, T., Grimm, T., Neubauer, P., Riedel, S.L., 2020. Recovery of the PHA Copolymer P(HB-co-HHx) With Non-halogenated Solvents: Influences on Molecular Weight and HHx-Content. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 8, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2020.00944

Riedel, S.L., Brigham, C., 2019. Polymers and adsorbents from agricultural waste, in: Simpson, B.K., Aryee, A.N.A., Toldrá, F. (Eds.), Byproducts from Agriculture and Fisheries: Adding Value for Food, Feed, Pharma and Fuels. Wiley, Chichester, pp. 523–544. doi.org/10.1002/9781119383956.ch22

Gutschmann, B., Schiewe, T., Weiske, M.T.H., Neubauer, P., Hass, R., Riedel, S.L., 2019. In-Line Monitoring of Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Production during High-Cell-Density Plant Oil Cultivations Using Photon Density Wave Spectroscopy. Bioengineering 6, 85. doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering6030085

Ong, S.Y., Kho, H.P., Riedel, S.L., Kim, S.W., Gan, C.Y., Taylor, T.D., Sudesh, K., 2018. An integrative study on biologically recovered polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) and simultaneous assessment of gut microbiome in yellow mealworm. J. Biotechnol. 265, 31–39. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiotec.2017.10.017

Brigham, C.J., Riedel, S.L., 2018. The Potential of Polyhydroxyalkanoate Production from Food Wastes. Appl. Food Biotechnol. 6, 7–18. https://doi.org/10.22037/afb.v6i1.22542

Riedel, S.L., Jahns, S., Koenig, S., Bock, M.C.E., Brigham, C.J., Bader, J., Stahl, U., 2015. Polyhydroxyalkanoates production with Ralstonia eutropha from low quality waste animal fats. J. Biotechnol. 214, 119–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiotec.2015.09.002

Riedel, S.L., Lu, J., Stahl, U., Brigham, C.J., 2014. Lipid and fatty acid metabolism in Ralstonia eutropha: Relevance for the biotechnological production of value-added products. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 98, 1469–1483. doi.org/10.1007/s00253-013-5430-8

Riedel, S.L., Brigham, C.J., Budde, C.F., Bader, J., Rha, C., Stahl, U., Sinskey, A.J., 2013. Recovery of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) from Ralstonia eutropha cultures with non-halogenated solvents. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 110, 461–470. doi.org/10.1002/bit.24713

Riedel, S.L., Bader, J., Brigham, C.J., Budde, C.F., Yusof, Z.A.M., Rha, C., Sinskey, A.J., 2012. Production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) by Ralstonia eutropha in high cell density palm oil fermentations. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 109, 74–83. doi.org/10.1002/bit.23283

Budde, C.F., Riedel, S.L., Hübner, F., Risch, S., Popović, M.K., Rha, C., Sinskey, A.J., 2011a. Growth and polyhydroxybutyrate production by Ralstonia eutropha in emulsified plant oil medium. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 89, 1611–1619. doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3102-0

Budde, C.F., Riedel, S.L., Willis, L.B., Rha, C., Sinskey, A.J., 2011b. Production of Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate- co -3-Hydroxyhexanoate) from Plant Oil by Engineered Ralstonia eutropha Strains. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 77, 2847–2854. doi.org/10.1128/AEM.02429-10

Running Projects

© BVT

PHABio-up

PHABio-up aims to succeed the acceleration of the industrial production of biodegradable Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymers from biogenic feedstocks.

© BVT

PHAtex

PHAtex aims to develop a complete green process chain to produce novel, flexible and biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) textile filaments on a competitive basis from renewable feedstocks.

Project supervisor

Dr.-Ing. Sebastian L. Riedel

contact: riedel@tu-berlin.de

 

Former Projects

© BVT

PHAbio App

PHAbio APP aims the development of a closed circle for the production, processing, recycling and biodegradation of novel PHA biopolymers from biowaste, in particular fat waste.

XenoGlue

Mussel glue is outstanding because it enables even under water extremely strong bonding. Till now, it was a problem to produce the glue in higher amounts and when produced it was sticking everywhere, that it was difficult to handle.

more