Current projects

The production of aromatics is crucial for the chemical industry. Currently, virtually all aromatic building blocks are produced from fossil oil. However, the availability of aromatic hydrocarbons from fossil sources will decrease, as less crude oil will be refined for energy use. The resulting gap between supply and demand can be met by using bio-based, renewable feedstocks to produce aromatics. This is addressed in the BIG-Cluster project ALIGN. It targets highly functionalised bio-based aromatics, which can be used in many different fields of applications, such as coatings, adhesives, or cosmetics.

The ALIGN Project started in April 2018 and combines experts in the field of bio-based aromatics from academia and industry. It deals with the conversion of lignin to bio-based aromatics with a high market value. The consortium consists of three partners with extensive expertise in lignin extraction and depolymerisation (Fraunhofer CBP, KU Leuven, LXP), one partner conducting downstream processing procedures (VITO) and three partners focusing on potential applications (Axxence Aromatic, Phytowelt Green Technologies, UPM Biochemicals) to produce high-pressure-laminates as well as natural vanillin for food and beverages. The German project partners will receive 1.3 m EUR from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The project BioCOnversion started in April 2018 and aims at developing and implementing a sustainable process from carbon monoxide (CO) to a defined polymer precursor by evaluating different technologies. In an international consortium, industrial and academic partners join their high-level, multidisciplinary expertise to develop a microbial bioconversion process comprising the primary conversion of CO/syngas into an intermediate alcohol through gas fermentation and the enzymatic upgrading conversion into the polymer precursor.

The project focusses on developing technologies for the individual process steps and on the conceptional design of the overall process. In a first phase, the individual process steps will be independently developed. Then, their performance will be evaluated by techno-economic assessments and life cycle analysis. Based on these results, the overall process will be experimentally validated and further optimised. A final process evaluation will be done from a techno-economic viewpoint along the whole development chain. BioCOnversion is coordinated by CLIB and unites several innovative providers of conversion and recovery technologies – making a high-value building block available from a CO-based, climate friendly process.

This project will establish a lively network for the circular and bioeconomy linking the Netherlands and NRW. It is funded by the INTERREG-programme Deutschland-Nederland and features three core working groups dealing with the topics “regional material flows”, “innovative business models”, and “qualification and training” within a circular bioeconomy. In addition,the project will offer an innovation coupon scheme to SMEs to further develop their business cases and foster their processdevelopment. It aims to network stakeholders from agriculture, logistics, biotechnology, academia, and the processing industry, as well as municipalities through numerous events, inspired by CLIB’s structured networking process. The network will create new cross-border value chains, business models, and collaborations.

The CLIB-Competence Centre Biotechnology is a multi-site joint project fostering a sustainable, resource-efficient economy in North Rhine-Westphalia, performed by Bielefeld University, TU Dortmund University, the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, and the Forschungszentrum Jülich. The aim of the CKB is to provide an integrated infrastructure for the bioeconomy in NRW: from gene and enzyme to process and product. The CKB will – based on previous experience – build up a multi-site, integrated centre. Through this, it will establish innovative technologies in NRW and bring them to a first scale of application. More than 30 working groups are working on the three megatrends resource efficiency, raw materials, and health. As a subcontractor, CLIB is responsible for the coordination of public relations and the integration into the local, national, and international economy via SMEs and industry.

ConCO2rde is a European innovative training network that brings together a diverse team of chemists, synthetic biologists, enzyme technologists and process engineers. The main objective of this team is to train 11 Early Stage Researchers (ESR) in different research disciplines that together allow the conversion of CO2 by smart autotrophic biorefineries.

The concept is based on autotrophic microorganisms that utilize renewable energy for the accumulation of biomass and, therefore, provide potential sources for future materials of our society. The network of ConCO2rde combines chassis strain development of these autotrophic microorganisms with process engineering in order to bring biotechnological processes to the next level.

CLIB will be involved in training the 11 ESRs and integrating the project consortium into its broad C1 network.

CROSSBEE will tackle the challenge of combining diverse disciplines and expertise in different fields relevant for bioecono-my under the coordination of CLIB within a four year project funded until 2022. CROSSBEE will implement two activities in the BIG-Cluster region: Within the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Biobased Products for a Sustainable (Bio)economy”, students from all over the world learn bioeconomy basics and discover state-of-the-art biobased product examples. The MOOC was published in January 2019. Within the student competition Global Biobased Business Plan Competition (G-BiB), the student teams will be individually trained in competencies and skills relevant for entrepreneurship and thus learn to think outside the scientific box.

A key strength of biotechnology is the conversion of functional, bio-based raw materials to high-quality products in diverse areas including specialty chemicals, cosmetics, or the food industry. These “high performance ingredients” (HiPerIns) can thus pave the way for new technologies, new processes and ultimately a bioeconomy. In addition to new intrinsic innovations, the biotechnological sector is increasingly influenced by external factors: disruptive technologies such as digitalisation and the drive towards a circular economy are radically changing existing markets, regulatory framework conditions and consumer wishes concerning sustainability are crucial for the success of a product today.

In 2020, the realisation phase of HiPerIn 2.0 has been granted funding by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. With a funding volume of 600.000 € und a funding period of three years, it will allow CLIB to tackle the most urgent hurdles, to find the most promising product groups and to create a lasting impact for the biotechnology scene in NRW. The cross-sectional topics digitalisation, circular (bio-) economy, regulatory frameworks, end-of-life-product design, and public perception will be analysed in relation to the product and market areas of food and feed, home and personal care, coatings, adhesives, and textiles.

Aiming at resource-efficient, environmentally sound, and sustainable production, this industry-driven project addresses the development of novel, economically viable products and processes based on waste streams originating from agriculture (e. g. grass, vegetables), horticulture, forestry, and food industry. Envisioned products include health-promoting food additives, fermentable sugars for the production of high-value compounds like astaxanthin, enzymatically optimized feed-additives, as well as fruit flavours to reduce large-scale on-field production and CO2 emissions. In the consortium, partners from industry and academia located at different positions in the value chains of the agricultural and food/feed industry are brought together.

Phosphorous is a finite resource of outstanding economic and social importance, which is currently exclusively obtained by rock mining. Phosphorous is mainly used in fertilizers (80 %) but its higher value-added products or uses are manifold and comprise e. g. melting salts, food additives, metal processing, street construction, or fire protection agents. The reduction of rock phosphorous use and replacement by phosphates from renewable resources would enable the closing of the phosphorous cycle and an efficient P-management. An emerging field is the enzymatic production of green phosphate by processing of feed plant material and food manufacturing side products (oilpress cakes and plant meals).The aim of the Business-P project is to answer the questions whether, at what cost, and in which valorisation products, processes using organically bound phosphorus, and related recycling strategies of this valuable resource, are economical. Within the Business-P project, the work group of Dr. A. J. Ruff from Institute of Biotechnology headed by Prof. Dr. U. Schwaneberg at RWTH Aachen University investigates the extraction of phosphorous from rape seed press cake and meal. Their expertise in protein engineering is applied to generate tailor-made enzymes for the P-recovery strategy. RWTH provides key data for economic assessments. Prof. Dr. S. Bröring, chair of Technology and Innovations Management in Agri-business at University of Bonn, analyses the new emerging value chains, valorisation potential, market entry, and the patent landscape. CLIB arranges the dissemination by organising workshops that identify valorisation potentials and facilitates a transfer of the generated data into industrial follow-up projects.