Description of the Project
The increasing awareness of the finite nature of our planet's natural resources is bringing sustainability into focus in all areas. Through innovative research projects, the Werner Siemens Chair of Synthetic Biotechnology is making a contribution to securing the basis of life for future generations. With the Urban Heat Cycle (UHC) project, we are pursuing the goal of converting worthless urban waste streams into valuable resources for the manufacture of higher-value products. We use nutrients from municipal sewage sludge and bio-organic waste - including material from organic waste garbage cans - as a nutrient medium for various microorganisms.
A central goal on the way to using sewage sludge is the targeted extraction of heavy metals using specific microalgae strains, which can be reversibly separated and subsequently subjected to separate value creation. The raw materials prepared in this way are then liquefied to make the nutrients they contain accessible. These nutrients are in turn used to cultivate oil-forming microorganisms, which transform them into valuable products. These products form the starting material for the thermocatalytic synthesis of liquid energy or hydrogen storage. One of the end products to be generated from this is sustainable, bio-based heating oil, which can be used as a CO₂-neutral heat source for urban districts.
The overarching goal of the UHC project is to give urban waste streams a new value as a sustainable source of energy - a decisive step towards a resource-conserving and sustainable circular economy. The UHC project is therefore a beacon of the circular urban bioeconomy and actively contributes to the reduction of fossil fuels and the sustainable transformation of cities.
Staff
- Dr. Michael Paper (scientific projekt management)
- Maximilian Lübben
- Michael Kiemle
