The sustainable production of chemicals from C02 using Gas Fermentation and Systems/ Synthetic Biology approaches
Fact file
| Duration |
Four years |
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| Eligibility |
UK students only. Please read the funding notes for full details. |
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| Supervisor(s) |
Professor Nigel Minton, Dr K Winzer |
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| Application deadline |
Friday 31 August
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About the project
One of the greatest challenges facing industry and society is the future sustainable production of chemicals and fuels from non-food resources while at the same time reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. The costs involved in the development of biological fermentation processes that use biomass-derived sugars as a feedstock for chemical production are proving economically challenging. An exciting alternative is to use waste gases as the feedstock. Gas fermenting microbes are able to grow on carbon monoxide/dioxide (CO/ CO2) derived from non-food sources, converting this low cost carbon into the chemicals and fuels modern society needs. Fortunately, these gases are both an abundant industrial waste (e.g. steel manufacturing, oil refining, coal and natural/shale gas) and can be sourced as ‘synthesis gas’ (CO and H2) produced from gasification of biomass in the form of domestic/ agricultural wastes. This enables the production of fuels and chemicals in any industrialized geography without the consumption of valuable food or land resources.
The aim of this PhD project is to exploit the progress made within Nottingham’s BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC) in the development of advanced metabolic engineering tools for anaerobic, gas fermenting chassis to implement the pathways needed to make the chemicals society needs. The CO2 feedstock will be sourced from the conversion of waste biomass using anaerobic digestion. The target chassis will be an anaerobic acetogen (eg., Eubacterium limosum, Acetobacterium woodii or Clostridium autoethanogen). This will involve the implementation of novel synthetic pathways combined with the inactivation of competing pathways using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. These efforts will be guided by genome scale modelling and system biology approaches.
The 4-year PhD project is jointly funded by an HORIZON 2020 award (ENGICOIN) and the SBRC Nottingham Doctoral Training Programme in Synthetic Biology. ENGICOIN initiates in January 2018is led by Guido Saracco (Centre for Sustainable Future Technologies, Torino, Italy) and comprises 12 academic and industrial partners from across Europe (Italy, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Spain and the UK). It aims to devise microbial-based processes that will consume the CO2 released by the anaerobic digestion of biomass waste. You will be fully integrated into the ENGICOIN consortium and be expected to travel to the frequent consortium meetings to be held around Europe and, where necessary, undertake joint experiments in partner laboratories. You will be based the £14.3M BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC – http://www.sbrc-nottingham.ac.uk), one of only six such centres in the UK, and occupy state-of-the-art facilities within Nottingham’s flagship science building, the Centre for Biomolecular Sciences. With a £1.1M Beckman Robotic workstation and 11 twin occupancy anaerobic cabinets, they are the best equipped laboratory for anaerobe studies in the UK.
Funding notes
UK Students with a degree in Microbiology, Biochemistry, or other appropriate degree who have achieved an Upper Second Class degree or better from the UK. Students with an equivalent degree from the European Union who also hold an accepted English Language qualification (IELTS 6.0 average; no element less than 5.5). Candidates from outside the EU are not eligible for funding.