Photanol BV

Enterprise

Photanol is a spin of company of the University of Amsterdam. Shareholders are venture capital firm Icos Capital, the University of Amsterdam Holding and the scientific founders. Photanol's objective is to bring to the market new production routes for the production of bio-compounds with CO2 as a feedstock. The first focus is on the production of LLA to be followed by other valuable organic chemicals such as other organic acids, biofuels, essential oils, and sugars. The strategy is to focus initially on the product with the best technology fit i.e. LLA followed by the production of the D-lactic acid enantiomer. The basis of the growth of the company is the ability to engineer the cyanobacteria in such a way that any compound can be produced

Team role and expertise in the project:

Beyond design and engineering of microbial cell factories, PHO has also been engaged in long-term stable collaboration with multiple academic and industrial partners in photobioreactor design, downstream processing. PHO will have its major role in the metabolic engineering of the Synechocystis and of photobioreactor-design, -construction and -testing. In this work package PHO will contribute to engineering and testing of lactate-overproducing strains, also with improved tolerance. In addition it will design and develop photo-bioreactors up to TRL5.

Our people

Aniek Van der WoudePrincipal Investigator 

Hysytech S.r.l

Enterprise

HST is a Chemical Engineering Company established on 2003, in Torino, Italy. Today it is a pioneer company in the field of process engineering, design and construction of turn-key plants for fuel chemical processing, energy production and environmental treatment. HST provides specialized engineering solutions and services on chemical processing, energy, power generation and environmental treatment. Its main activities refer to chemical engineering, above all chemical plants, industrial catalysis, and energy production/ transformation, with a special focus on hydrogen production from hydrocarbons, fuel cell systems and production/use of renewable energies such as biofuels (bioethanol, biomasses and biodiesel), wind and photovoltaic energy.

Team role and expertise in the project:

In the field of electrochemistry, the company has developed an electrolysis technology based on polymeric membranes for high pressure operation and is developing a special application of a device applicable to liquid electrolyte electrochemical cells (such as alkaline electrolyzer and fuel cells) to increase the conversion efficiency. Another field of own development is the pyrolysis and gasification of industrial wastes. HST is involved in the development, design, assembling, integration, installing, commissioning and testing of the TRL5 system in the integrated site, mostly encompassed in WP 7. HST will lead the systems assembly through the sub-units integration and manufacture the bioreactors for MF2 and MF3.

Our people

Massimiliano AntoniniPrincipal Investigator 

Sorani MontenegroResearcher

Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

Research Centre - Coordinator

Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology, IIT) is a scientific research center established by Italian law in 2003 in order to promote excellence in both basic and applied research, and to facilitate national economic development. IIT scientific activities started in 2006 with a very strong approach to technology transfer. About half of the researchers (44%) come from abroad: 29% are scientists from more than 50 foreign countries and 15% are Italian researchers who have come back to Italy after a professional experience abroad. IIT has a vast experience in managing and supervising research projects: its portfolio is more than 340 external funded research projects, 157 of which financed by EU funding programs (FP7 and H2020) - 18 are funded by European Research Council (ERC). IIT has produced more than 8500 publications and 211 inventions resulting in more than 500 patent applications. Its research activity led to the creation of 17 spin-offs, with additional 26 under due diligence. Research is carried out in the Central Research laboratory in Genoa (IIT headquarters), in 11 satellite centers across Italy and in 2 outstations in US. IIT scientific vision is interdisciplinary, based on the concept of “translating evolution into technology”, that is mimicking natural solutions to develop new technologies.

Team role and expertise in the project:

Participation to the project will be through the Centre for Sustainable Future Technologies based in Turin. The mission of the Centre is to study, design and realize demonstrators for the future generation of materials, processes and components for several applications addressing the circular economy and the fight against Climate Change. IIT will serve as coordinating party. Prof. Pirri’s group has a long running cooperation experience with ACEA, HST, KRJ, UNOTT, HYDRO, UVA on the grounds of several previous EU, national or industrial projects. The Centre for Sustainable Future Technologies (CSFT) that Prof. Pirri manages at Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), laboratories are engaged in fundamental studies on carbon activation to APR catalysts, APR reformer testing the optimization of bioreactor process conditions, the monitoring of the test campaign at ACEA with catalyst materials ageing and microorganisms stress analysis. IIT will also have a primary role in the testing up to TRL4 of the most promising Acetobacturium wodii strains developed at UNOTT for the production of acetone

Our people

Prof. Fabrizio PirriPrincipal Investigator - Coordinator

Giuditta TraversoProject Manager

Valentina MargariaCo-PI

Angela ReResearcher

Nicolò VasileResearcher