Research Project

3D-BioCat – Developing 3D-Hybrid Living Materials in Bioreactors for Mixotrophic Biofilm Catalysis

3D-BioCat is pioneering a breakthrough platform technology to cultivate light-powered mixotrophic biofilms, unlocking new possibilities for the sustainable production of chemicals

The 3D-BioCat project is developing a new technology platform for growing light-powered biofilms that can sustainably produce building blocks for polymers. The core innovation is the use of modular Hybrid Living Material (HLM) reactors, designed to host different types of biofilms and mimic the efficiency of natural systems.

The project explores two nature-inspired reactor formats: a spiral cylinder and a semi-ellipsoid design, and compares them in terms of catalytic efficiency and potential for industrial scale-up.

To demonstrate the concept, a laboratory-scale prototype reactor will be constructed to produce epsilon-caprolactone continuously from cyclohexanol, a key intermediate in the production of biodegradable polycaprolactone polymer. Additionally, advanced imaging and analytical techniques will be employed to monitor biofilm growth and performance within the reactors, with the goal of sustaining biofilm activity over extended reaction times.

In the future, our new scalable HLMs-based bioreactors should harness the potential of productive biofilms to continuously produce chemicals and energy carriers.

Proposed Nature-inspired reactor design for the cultivation of mixotrophic biofilms. The benchmark outcome should yield gram-scale amounts of epsilon-caprolactone in the effluent, consistently maintained for a duration of 3-4 weeks.

https://productive-biofilms.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/3DBioCat_SPP2494_Video_v2.mp4

Insight into the 3D BioCat research project.

Team

Katja Bühler

Phone: +49 341 6025-4683

Email: katja.buehler@ufz.de

Rohan Karande

Telefon: +49 341 97-36933

Email: rohan.karande@uni-leipzig.de