Consortium

AquaHealth brings together a consortium of experienced researchers from three European countries, each with a strong academic and scientific background in biology, chemistry, biotechnology and process engineering. Bringing together their complementary expertise and innovative research approaches contributes to the exceptional scientific quality of the AquaHealth consortium, clearly benefiting from transnational cooperation.

Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) is long experienced in cultivation of microalgae as well as downstream processing. Located on the Innovation Centre in Hamburg-Reitbrook the TUHH possesses several pilot scale cultivation systems, i.e. closed systems (tubular and flat panel airlift reactors) and open systems(two raceway ponds). In addition, the TUHH has been leading or participating partner in many past and ongoing projects allocated with microalgae, e.g. ABiRe, ALBIRA and ALBAPRO.

Partners from the Universität Hamburg (UHH) have access to a wide range of diverse, unique and complimentary resources that will be used for identification of high value bioactive molecules. UHH have strain collections of microalgae and microorganisms isolated from diverse areas with more than 500 specimens. UHH perform both sequence-based and functional screening; and have the expertise for in silico mining as well as in development of omics’ technologies.

Partner SINTEF has extensive experience in marine bioprospecting using both classical, as well as sequence- and functional metagenomics-based approachesfor novel bioactive natural products. SINTEF has extensive high-throughput (HT) and ultra-high-throughput (UHT) screening facilities optimally equipped for that purpose as well as an in house illumina MiSeq and Minion sequencer, allowing participation in the development of combined approaches for draft metagenomes/genomes generation.

From the University of Aalborg, Denmark, two partners will contribute to the AquaHealth project. The Department of Chemistry and Bioscience (AAU BIO) are experts in characterization of microbial communities of engineered and natural environments. The group has in-house access to, and experience with, state-of-the-art methods, e.g. high-throughput Illumina technologies (HiSeq2500 and MiSeq) and Oxford Nanopore sequencing systems (Promethion and MinIons) as well aspipelines for bioinformatic analyses, LC-MS for proteomics studies, various biochemical methods (1H-NMR), and advanced microscopy (confocal laser scanning microscopy and Raman microspectroscopy).

The Department of Planning, Aalborg University (AAU PLAN) will contribute with expertise in industrial ecology and with the appropriate knowledge, tools, and data required to perform the prospective assessment of innovative green technologies from environmental, social and economic perspective. Skills, software and databases for Life Cycle Assessment (SimaPro, Brightway2 ecoinvent, Exiobase) are available in-house at AAU PLAN.

Sea Sun Technology (SST) ltd. including the department Sea and Sun Organic will provide parts of its indoor and greenhouse microalgae production facilities. The SST will share expertise and infrastructure in cultivation, up scaling, harvesting (centrifuge max. 8 m³/h) and processing (beat mill and spray dryer) of microalgal biomass. Greenhouse capacities are 6000 m² containing 40 bubble columns of 80 liters each, 4 open raceway ponds with 3 m³ cultivation volume and two production ponds with 30 m³ and 35 m³, respectively. Indoor production facilities are horizontal glass tube with LED illumination containing various production lines covering 8 m³ altogether.

Hamburg University of Technology
Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics
Blohmstrasse 15
D-21079 Hamburg

www.tuhh.de/iue
aquahealth@tuhh.de