Biotechnology for CO2 conversion: to BES or not to BES

Heleen De Wever obtained a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences in 1995. In 2001, she joined the Business Unit of Separation and Conversion Technology at VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research, in Belgium.

She is currently leading VITO's biotechnology team which focusses on two main research lines.

The first one is bioprocess intensification, in which separation technology is combined with bioconversions for high cell density fermentations, in-situ product recovery, and/or selective product separation.

The second one is the valorization of gaseous substrates and CO2-rich off-gases through biotechnological approaches, such as fermentations and bioelectrochemistry. She currently coordinates Horizon2020 project BioRECO2VER which focusses on biological routes for CO2 conversion into chemical building blocks.

Electromicrobiology by design

Dr. Sarah Glaven is a research biologist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) with over 12 years of experience in the field of microbial electrochemistry and electromicrobiology. Dr. Glaven is recognized worldwide as an expert in this field and for her work using meta-omics to understand electron transfer and carbon fixation in electroautotrophic biofilm communities. Recently, Dr. Glaven has begun incorporating tools and practices of synthetic biology in her research to engineer extracellular electron transfer (EET) for sensors and microbial electrosynthesis. She currently serves on the editorial board of Biofilms and mSystems and is the most recent past President of the International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology (ISMET).

Microbial electrochemistry for bioremediation: the game changer

Korneel Rabaey (20/11/1977) obtained his PhD in 2005 at Ghent University, and is professor at the Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology (CMET), Department of Biotechnology at Ghent University. He is also honorary professor at The University of Queensland and one of the founders of CAPTURE (www.resourcerecovery.be). He currently eads a research team of 25 postdoctoral and doctoral researchers with a main research focus on the electrification of biotechnology. This implies the use of electricity as direct or indirect driver of biotechnological conversions. Examples are replacement of chemicals for wastewater treatment by electricity, the conversion of CO2 to organic products, bioremediation of groundwater, electricity driven sanitation of septage in India, and so on. His research spans from basic science to technology development and on site implementation. He has authored over 180 peer reviewed articles within this area. As a special interest, he works on the interface between arts and science, working with several artists to create microbiology based artworks. He was a founding member of the International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology (ISMET), and its President from 2013 – 2015. Since 2018 he is fellow of the International Water Association. He is incoming Executive Editor in Chief of Environmental Science & Ecotechnology.