Areas of study within the department of biotechnology
Environmental Biotechnology and Microbial Ecology
Environmental biotechnology is applying biotechnology to solve environmental problems.
In principle, including:
Cleaning of effluents and treatment of waste,
Alternative processes more friendly to the environment,
Alternative products more friendly to the environment.
Biocatalysed processes may be more friendly to the environment because they give less by-products and can be run at lower temperatures. Products may be made more biodegradable, for instance new types of plastic materials and polymers or new types of detergents. But environmental biotechnology is in practice mainly:
ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR CLEANING OF EFFLUENTS AND TREATMENT OF WASTE
FIELD OF APPLICATION:
KEY WORDS:
Biological (waste)water treatment;
organic compounds, N, P, S and heavy metals
Biological flue gas treatment;
odour, sulphide, volatile aromatics
Bioremediation of soil;
xenobiotics; oil, PAH, PCB
Biodegradation of hazardous compounds;
xenobiotics; hazardous chemicals
Biogas production;
from landfills, wet organic waste
Composting;
in process plants, in your own garden
A more general definition is:
Environmental biotechnology is the utilisation of microbes to protect or restore natural environments from chemical damage due to human activities.
But nature itself is very capable in doing this! It is therefore essential to learn how to cooperate with and enhance such natural processes, implying that environmental biotechnology is to take biotechnology out of the lab, out into the real world:
Such biotechnology in open systems is primarily open to other microbes, implying that we have to learn how to run microbial ecosystems. So far, the problem has been that most of these organisms cannot be cultivated in pure monoculture, and thereby cannot be studied by classic microbiology. Now, molecular biology has developed new methods and gene probes that make it possible to label and study even non-culturable bacteria and populations in situ, that is outdoor in nature or in the treatment plant.
This has revolutionised the whole field of microbial ecology in a way that the scientists of the American Academy of Microbiology has characterised as "a crossroads of opportunity", or the engineers of the International Water Association as "The key to the design of biological wastewater treatment systems". Ecogenomics is the name of this new field. This ecogenomics is currently also revolutionising the field of environmental biotechnology.
At the Department, we have so far studied:
Biodegradation of organic material such as marine biomass (key words seaweeds, alginate, hydrolysis, composting, biogas and ethanol production).
Biological wastewater treatment (key words gel entrapment, N and P removal).
Biofilm formation and biofouling (key words chitosans and flocculation, non-solid gel surfaces, ship anti-fouling and testing).
Oil spill pollution (key words toxicity, bioemulgation, biodegradation).
Master thesis studies are also offered abroad through established contacts, for example at TU Delft, ICTP Prague, Lunds Universitet, Aalborg Universitet, a.o.
