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NEEDED – Unlock the Source of Blackwater

The overarching aim of NEEDED is to establish a new biobased production platform by embracing microbial communities for achieving sustainable production of specific biobased chemicals from source separated municipal wastewater.

Environmental biotechnology provides unique opportunity to create new platforms for sustainable processes which is a global goal today and essential to achieve transition into a circular economy and that includes resource recovery, reuse and recycling. Despite the promising developments, two main challenges left in this area are obtaining pure products and increasing production efficiency in both industrial and environmental biotechnology applications. Source separated municipal wastewater is a new approach for urban wastewater management to increase the recovery of the value-added components from high-strength part (blackwater).

Short-term objectives

The short-term objectivesof the NEEDED project are: 1) to screen mixed microbiomes taken from both natural and engineered ecosystems, 2) to select key species based on characteristics of the fermentation of blackwater and to co-cultivate the selected species in granular form for tailor made VFA production as caproic acid, butyric acid, propionic acid and acetic acid. 3) bioaugmentation of synthetic granules into mixed microbiome taken from engineered bioreactor(s). 5) design of novel cascade upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor. This approach will break new grounds in both microbial biotechnology and process engineering and be a game changer to produce bio-based materials by opening new applications in biotechnology.

Project period

March 2023–March 2026

Funding

The ÅForsk Foundation

Total budget

1 890 000 SEK

Project coordinator

Zeynep Cetecioglu Gurol
Zeynep Cetecioglu Gurol associate professor

KTH Researchers

Maria Leonor da Quinta Lobo
Maria Leonor da Quinta Lobo
Ece Kendir Çakmak
Ece Kendir Çakmak postdoc
Isaac Owusu-Agyeman
Isaac Owusu-Agyeman researcher

News about the project

Researcher working in a fume hood.
Isaac Owusu-Agyeman is one of the researchers who want to use bioreactors to produce volatile fatty acids from wastewater. Photo: KTH

Biochemicals from wastewater – a gamechanger

Researchers at KTH aim to produce chemicals from wastewater as an alternative to fossil-based chemicals. The researchers in the project named NEEDED, which is funded by Åforsk, will design a group of microorganisms with the capacity to efficiently transform organic matter in wastewater into products with future applicability in industry.

From poop to prosperity

The NEEDED project transforms toilet water into industrial gold at KTH Live-In Lab. The researchers aim to create a platform for producing specific bio-based chemicals from wastewater using microbial communities.