Microorganisms build, convert and degrade biomass in a variety of ways. These metabolic services are used in technical processes for the manufacture of commercial products. From an industrial point of view bacteria, unicellular fungi and microalgae are most important. Microorganisms play a central role not only in biotechnological production, but also in cascading by-products, in the biotechnological degradation of biobased waste materials and in the recycling of CO2. Thus, whole-cell catalysis closes material cycles of carbonand plant nutrients and is therefore a central building-block of the Circular Bio-Economy. This presentation provides an overview of whole-cell catalysis processes and products, and identifies applications and markets. It also discusses the level of technical maturity, commercial competitiveness, and the need for research into new applications.
Manfred Kircher is freelance advisor on Bioeconomy. He brings to his consulting work more than 30 years of experience in the chemical industry and the development of bio-economy clusters with companies, research institutes, and public administration. His career milestones are biotechnological research and development (Degussa AG, Germany), production (Fermas s.r.o.; Slovakia), venture capital (Burrill & Company; USA) and biotechnology partnering and branding (Evonik Industries AG; Germany). Since 2012 he chairs the Advisory Board of CLIB-Cluster (Düsseldorf, Germany). In 2014 he founded KADIB, a consultancy for bioeconomy providing advice to industries, SME, politics and public administration. Since 2019 he is member of the Board of BioBall e.V. (Bioeconomy in Metropolitan Regions; Frankfurt am Main, Germany). In 2020, he has been appointed to the Advisory Board for Sustainable Bioeconomy of the German State Government of Baden-Württemberg and as Chairman of the Organics Valorisation Section of the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB). Manfred Kircher has been certified as a bio-economy expert by the EU-Commission. He is biologist by training (Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany).
