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Program 1
Green Cycles of Renewable Materials
Bioeconomy concepts of feedstock utilization generally involve deconstruction of natural materials to a variable degree of completeness, leading to intermediates to be upgraded. Currently, most of the resulting product streams are used in non-environmentally friendly processes or are utilized as feedstocks in the formation of non-biodegradable materials, such as synthetic polymers. We propose the use of natural feedstocks while avoiding irreversible chemical modifications and instead target the production of functional materials designed for recycling via reversible green modifications. After the service life of these materials, demodification and reversion back to a native or near-native state can then occur, producing biodegradable materials that are easily disposed of or reused, creating a truly circular bioeconomy. In case of products streams or functionalizations not conducive to reversion back to near-native states, these materials will serve as feedstock in green-on-green transformations, i.e., the use of white biotechnology for the further upcycling of such materials.
Program 2 will set the foundation to shift microbial biotech production from a linear technology, consuming agricultural products as feedstocks, to a self-sustaining technology based on CO2, waste streams, or electricity. Metabolic modeling will facilitate the design of the most carbon and energy efficient metabolic pathways. Metabolic driving forces and the flexible exchange of pathway modules will be empowered by compartmentation in native or synthetic organelles, and by the development of self-sustainable microbial communities. The Self-Sustainable Microbial Systems Program will be complemented by novel analytical pipelines for single cell and sub-cellular metabolomics and metabolic flux analysis as well as for metabolic interactions and dynamics within microbial communities.
Program 3 will address challenges of organic chemistry to enable novel sustainable synthetic routes and to green the way how pharmaceuticals, polymer building blocks, surfactants, aroma compounds etc. are produced. We focus here on basic research of regio-, chemo- and stereoselective oxidations, as well as photon- and electron-driven bioprocesses. We want to learn what controls and governs regio-, chemo- and stereoselectivity e.g., in oxidative C-C bond formation and how regio- and stereoselectivity of alcohol oxidation evolved when analyzing ancestral enzymes. Various libraries of complementary enzymes will be developed to be considered for being incorporated in synthetic routes. Furthermore, we will investigate photoautotrophic organisms that use light to fuel biosynthetic reactions for the production of chemicals. Photobiocatalytic or bioelectrocatalytic processes generate radicals for innovative approaches towards the oxidative depolymerization of polyolefins and other highly recalcitrant polymers with non-hydrolysable bonds. A comprehensive experimental-computational approach to develop functional bioelectrodes that provide oxidoreductases with reduction or oxidation equivalents and co-substrates.
Program 4 is dedicated to scrutinizing larger-scale sustainability aspects of Circular Bioengineering. It will provide the knowledge basis necessary to forge strategies that prevent negative sustainability impacts. It will advance the understanding of conditions and scales that determine the sustainability of bioengineering processes, in a comprehensive, holistic approach. Methodological advances relate to assessments of potential environmental issues at the output side, mainly focusing on the aquatic environment, as well as on the input side, i.e., to scrutinize comprehensively socio-environmental impacts of production and global distribution of biomass as feedstock. Additionally, at the level of single facilities, the economic feasibility will be scrutinized. Key leitmotif of the Circular Prospects Program will be the precautionary principle.
