Sewage water and sludge are raw materials for the production of PHA: biodegradable biopolymers made by bacteria. These polyhydroxyalkanoates can offer an interesting alternative to fossil plastics. The number of research projects in this field is therefore increasing. Reason for the Biobased Economy Lecturers Platform to organize the webinar "Recent results in PHA development" at the end of November.
During this webinar, moderated by Jappe de Best, professor of biobased resources & energy at Avans University of Applied Sciences, a number of speakers presented current results from their PHA research. For example, Ischa Lamot, lecturer/researcher Biobased Technology at Avans University of Applied Sciences and Thomas Uhrig, PhD candidate at TU Kaiserslautern, discussed the Interreg-NWE project WOW! (Wider business Opportunities for raw materials from Wastewater), which is aimed at extracting PHA, but also pyrolysis oil, biodiesel and biochar from wastewater.