Mc Labor delivered and installed the new laboratory containers at the Thuringian Innovation Centre for Recyclable Materials (ThIWert) in late autumn last year. In recent weeks, the existing laboratory technology has now been moved from the August Kramer Institute at Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences to the new laboratory facilities.

With the commissioning of the new "Bioresources" laboratory, the five-person team led by Dr Anja Schreiber and Prof. Dr Uta Breuer can now focus intensively on the process engineering development of biological remediation and treatment processes in the field of biogas production, wastewater technology and soil remediation.

The scientists are currently working on the joint project "Development of a novel biochemical process for sulphur separation from gases", which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) via the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR). The work is focussed on the cultivation of novel sulphur bacteria. These are being tested in parallel in a desulphurisation unit developed by the Gera-based company UGN Umwelttechnik GmbH and connected to the 1m³ research biogas plant at Nordhauen University of Applied Sciences for their efficiency in biogas desulphurisation. The hydrogen sulphide produced during the fermentation of organic substances in biogas plants causes corrosion in all plant components that come into contact with it and must therefore be removed from the gas. The aim of the joint project is therefore to provide the industry with an efficient desulphurisation technology in the long term that guarantees a long service life for the system-integrated devices and minimises high running costs due to maintenance and repair.

What scientists Marén Podewski and Lynn Vincent and technical assistant Dana Seidler are testing on a small scale at Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences is being upscaled at the joint venture partner BTN Biotechnologie Nordhausen GmbH. Here, the sulphur bacteria previously pre-cultivated in the ThIWert are permanently cultivated in a laboratory fermenter and the process is adapted to optimise bacterial growth.

Another research focus in the new "Bioresources" laboratory is the molecular biological identification of microorganisms using PCR and qPCR. These are methods that are currently also used in medical laboratories to test for coronaviruses. For the team at Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences, the analysis methods offer the opportunity to identify the sulphur bacteria used in a mixture of bacteria in the research project and to assess their performance in the biogas process.