"The work of the new Junior Research Group aims to offer plastics made from renewable raw materials as an industrially viable alternative to conventional plastics," said Prof. Dr. Ralph Bruder, President of the University of Oldenburg: "The BMFTR's funding approval also acknowledges our university's outstanding research infrastructure in this field and highlights the potential of EcoPBS in creating an environmentally and climate-friendly circular economy."
PBS has similar robustness and processing characteristics to common plastics such as polypropylene and polyethylene, while also being readily biodegradable. Researchers have not yet produced a fully bio-based PBS material that is completely recyclable, and current production processes are not compatible with large-scale use in the chemical industry. "For a high yield, you need microorganisms that are easy to grow and stable enough to be efficient in low-cost, low-energy processes," Walther explains.
The Junior Research Group will investigate how to convert a biological substrate made from garden cuttings and crop residues into bio-based PBS in three sub-projects. The first will focus on optimizing a newly developed biotechnological fermentation process and assessing how effectively different microorganisms can transform the heterogeneous organic material into bioplastic precursors. Two fermentation routes, Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation and succinic acid fermentation, will be tested to evaluate their suitability.
The second sub-project will concentrate on downstream processing, the stage in which unwanted by-products are removed from the converted material. In this step, the group aims to convert the organic compound n-butanol into 1,4 butanediol, a bivalent alcohol that serves as an important raw material for PBS production. Simulations and machine learning tools will be used to improve both the material and energy balances of this conversion stage.
A new chemical substance is required to remove contaminants and to enable production of fully biodegradable PBS for the first time. The researchers have already created an initial blueprint for this compound and submitted a patent application, and they intend to refine this technology in the third sub-project. Another goal is to use residues from bio-PBS manufacturing to generate renewable electricity and heat for the laboratory infrastructure, closing additional resource loops.
In a later phase of the project, the team plans to produce initial demonstrator products for industrial use, such as packaging and medical materials, using digital 3D models and PBS derived entirely from biological sources. These demonstrators are expected to show how waste-derived PBS can enter practical applications.
Walther recently joined the University of Oldenburg to establish the EcoPBS Junior Research Group, which will include one postdoctoral researcher and three doctoral candidates. She studied Business Chemistry at Kiel University (CAU), receiving her bachelor's degree in 2016 and her master's degree in 2018, and completed a doctorate in organic functional materials at the University of Bremen in 2023 before continuing as a postdoctoral researcher in organic chemistry.
The University of Oldenburg currently hosts nine externally funded Junior Research Groups that support early-career researchers on their way to professorships or other senior academic positions. Within EcoPBS, partner universities include Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, the University of Twente in Enschede and Christian-Albrechts-Universitat zu Kiel, while external project partners comprise gardening and landscaping company Oeltjen in Westerstede, research institute Fair-Fusion in Emmen and plastics supplier Biovox in Darmstadt.
Related Links
Junior Research Group EcoPBS, University of Oldenburg
Bio Fuel Technology and Application News
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