Project properties
Title Biological hydrogen production beyond current limits
Group Microbiology, Laboratory of
Project type thesis
Credits 12 BSc. thesis
Supervisor(s) Sebastiaan K. Spaans and Servé W.M. Kengen
Examiner(s) John van der Oost
Contact info sebastiaan.spaans@wur.nl
Begin date 2012/03/14
End date 2014/03/13
Description Although large reserves still exist, it is generally accepted that the era of cheap fossil fuels as energy source will end within the next 50 years. This urges the search for alternative energy scenarios, in which the world eventually becomes independent of fossil fuels. Hydrogen is a promising alternative that is being investigated worldwide. Unfortunately, most of the current techniques used to generate hydrogen still rely on fossil fuels in one way or another. To shift to a more sustainable production, hydrogen must be derived from renewable resources like biomass. One way to produce hydrogen from biomass is by making use of microbial fermentation. However, improvements are needed to make biological hydrogen production via such a process feasible. We have initiated a synthetic biology approach with the model archaeon Themococcus kodakarensis to reach this goal.
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