In view of the limited supply of fossil fuels and resources such as oil, natural gas and coal,
there has been a change in attitudes in recent years in industry and society. There is an
awareness that not only energy supplies depends on fossil resources, but also that most
chemical industries depend on products from refineries. Around 86% of the raw materials
used in the chemical industry are fossil based. It is imperative to find new ways to make
these fossil-derived products. Biorefineries provide the opportunity to manufacture substitute
products from various raw materials. Such production processes are currently being
developed individually. The approaches are often similar, using a large spectrum of raw
materials and various microorganisms like algae, archaea, bacteria and fungi, to make a
large number of products. Much is known about these microorganisms, but not within
industry. The qualification courses presented here, on the subject of microbiological
biorefineries, contain the basic knowledge of current systems, possible raw materials,
products and their biochemistry, microbiology (algae, archaea, bacteria, fungi), units on
special topics in biology (enzymes, biofilms, bioinformatics, GMOs) as well as units on
bioprocess engineering (pretreatment, bioreactors, CFD simulations, process simulations,
down-stream processing, measurement technologies, thermal utilisation). The units will end
with an innovation workshop on the topic of algal, archaeal, bacterial and fungal biorefineries.
Owing to the complexity and scope of the subject, didactic reduction will be used in
combination with problem-based learning to facilitate entry into the topic for the participants
from industry, to help them understand the complexity, and to allow them to bring the
innovation process back to their company. In tailored seminars and workshops, the
participants will be taught the broad range of subjects they will need for the subsequent
innovation workshops. The aim of these innovation workshops is to lay the foundation for
new research projects. The ultimate aim is not develop at least one new biorefinery system
for every microbiological platform.