Pre-treatment of feedstock is especially important when considering residue material as substrates for bioprocesses. Besides thermal, mechanical treatment, organic matter can also be treated biochemically. Thereby the compounds are metabolized by microorganisms. The products can be used as valuable substrates for following processes. Oil-, food- or agricultural residues can be used for biogas, food and feed additives, biopolymer production and other components.
In particular, microbial hydrolysis is seen as a fast and cheap process that can be optimized by suitable operation and monitoring tools. We investigate and optimize microbial hydrolysis particularly in plug-flow reactors through gradient monitoring, recirculation and bioaugmentation strategies. We further develop tailor-made, partly 3-D printed lab-scale reactors to accelerate the implementation of cheap and suitable research tools.