Elimination of the two most important greenhouse gasses: methane and carbon dioxide

Background

Today, methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions represent approximately 90% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory worldwide, and their share is expected to increase in the 21^st century based on their industrial and organic nature and the rapidly increasing world population. Despite the environmental relevance of both CH₄ and CO₂ emissions, the development of cost-efficient and environmentally friendly GHG treatment technologies has been scarce. To date the implementation of technologies to treat these GHGs are not efficient nor cost-effective.

Aim

This project aims to set a new strategy to eliminate CH₄ and CO₂ emissions based on the bioconversion of both GHGs into microbial molecules with a high retail value in the market, such as ectoines. This novel approach will offer a cost-competitive solution for the mitigation of their anthropogenic laden streams and will open the doors to a new market based in the transformation of waste through cell factories.

Contact

Are you interested in working on this project? Please contact Sara Cantera Ruiz De Pellon (sara.canteraruizdepellon@wur.nl).