Recently, two master's students in energy biotechnology at the University of Akureyri worked for Matís in sequencing thermophilic bacterial strains.
The bacterial strains in question are from hot springs in Iceland and are interesting because they produce hydrogen, ethanol and methane among other end products.
The students' master's project is research on microorganisms from hot springs in Iceland that produce products that can be used as energy sources. The main emphasis is on looking for bacterial strains that produce desirable substances from cheap raw materials that are produced in Iceland or are easy and profitable to cultivate domestically for production. These students are named Hrönn Brynjarsdóttir and Jan Eric Jessen and it will be interesting to see the progress of their project. Their supervisor is Jóhann Örlygsson.
Matís has extensive knowledge of thermophilic microorganisms and one of the projects in which Matís is a key participant is to develop methods in biotechnology for the production of ethanol from wood and plant mass, ie to utilize biomass that can be used. as fuel.
Timber on the fuel tank
One of the growing aspects of Matís' operations is biotechnology and how that technology can be used to develop new production methods and thus strengthen new knowledge. One of the Nordic projects that Matís is currently working on is the development of biotechnology for the production of ethanol from wood and plant biomass. This could be said that timber is converted for use on the fuel tank, ie. that biomass will be used for fuel production, but a significant amount of it will be generated in the Nordic countries.
The project is run by Matís from Iceland, Statoil ASA, Wayland AB and SINTEF from Norway, INNVENTIA AB from Sweden, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the Technical Research Center of Finland (VIT). The project received outstanding funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers through the Nordic Energy Fund.
The project is very diverse and involves, among other things, developing methods for pre-treating the biomass so that it can be used by fermentation organisms for ethanol production. Also to develop efficient enzyme technology to break down biomass into fermentable sugars and genetically modify yeast so that they can break down polysaccharides. Matís will develop and improve thermophilic ethanol-forming fermentation bacteria using genetic engineering, but bacteria that have been isolated from hot springs can often break down cellulose efficiently. However, these bacteria produce additives such as acetic and lactic acid.
The goal is that with stronger thermophilic bacteria it will be possible to increase ethanol production, reduce or completely stop the production of additives and break down cellulose. The ultimate goal is to create a production system that combines the breakdown of cellulose and the fermentation of ethanol in one biological unit / system.
For further information Guðmundur Óli Hreggviðsson at Matís.