Integrated Product Recovery Will Boost Industrial Cyanobacterial Processes

Corjan van den Berg; Michel H M Eppink; Rene H Wijffels

doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2018.11.006

Integrated Product Recovery Will Boost Industrial Cyanobacterial Processes

Trends Biotechnol. 2019 May;37(5):454-463. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2018.11.006. Epub 2018 Dec 5.

Authors

Corjan van den Berg¹, Michel H M Eppink², Rene H Wijffels³

Affiliations

¹ Bioprocess Engineering, AlgaePARC, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; https://www.wur.nl/en/Research-Results/Chair-groups/Agrotechnology-and-Food-Sciences/Bioprocess-Engineering.htm. Electronic address: corjan.vandenberg@wur.nl.
² Bioprocess Engineering, AlgaePARC, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; https://www.wur.nl/en/Research-Results/Chair-groups/Agrotechnology-and-Food-Sciences/Bioprocess-Engineering.htm.
³ Bioprocess Engineering, AlgaePARC, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; Nord University, Faculty of Biosciences and Aquaculture, N-8049 Bodø, Norway; https://www.wur.nl/en/Research-Results/Chair-groups/Agrotechnology-and-Food-Sciences/Bioprocess-Engineering.htm. Electronic address: https://twitter.com/@ReneWijffels.

PMID: 30528220
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2018.11.006

Abstract

Cyanobacteria promise to be an important industrial platform for the production of a variety of biobased products such as fuels, plastics, and isoprenoids. Recent advances in synthetic biology have resulted in various cyanobacterial strain improvements. Nevertheless, these new strains are still hampered by product inhibition, resulting in low volumetric productivities, product concentrations, and yields on light. To circumvent these issues, continuous product recovery will need to be applied, resulting in economically viable industrial processes. Optimal product recovery strategies can be developed by considering biological and separation process constraints as well as photobioreactor design. Integrated product recovery will be indispensable to bring the cyanobacterial cell factory to industrial scale.

Keywords: cyanobacteria; process integration; product recovery; separation.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Cyanobacteria*
Industrial Microbiology*
Photobioreactors*
Synthetic Biology*