This course includes research results from the project "Phosphogypsum as a mineral resource for bioprocesses", which is funded through the MSCA4Ukraine project, which is funded by the European Union (main contact - Assoc. Prof. Yelizaveta Chernysh).
Rapid industrialization and urbanization over the past decades has resulted in contamination of all the components of the environment in many areas of the world.
Modern biotechnology is being considered as an emerging science for environmental protection and to support the sustainable development in different aspects using natural adaptation mechanisms and renewable resources for the production of bio-based products.
Sustainable Biotechnology and Environmental Protection subject aims to provide the view into the application of processes for the protection and restoration of the quality of the environment and waste recycling.
This course is set up in the main topics:
- Biotechnologies in Human Life
Introduction to the course. A review of the basic concepts and their definitions. Overview of the uses of biotechnology and its importance in human life. Historical development of biotechnology and classification of biotechnology by spheres of use. Consideration of the basic elements of biotechnological production and fermentation mode.
- Bioindication and environmental biotesting
Consideration of the principles of bioindication and biotesting, their advantages and disadvantages, the scope of application. Test-objects and their reactions to changes in the environment under the influence of various pollutants. Lichenoindication.
- Anaerobic waste treatment processes
Waste as a resource for anaerobic digestion and production of useful bio-based products such as biogas and biofertilizer. Dark fermentation and biohydrogen production. Methods to intensify anaerobic digestion. Examples of implementation of biogas stations at solid waste landfills.
- Microbiological methods to remove emerging contaminations from the environment
Emerging contaminations in the environment and natural process of their biotransformation and biodegradation. Binding of heavy metals by biological methods from ecosystem components. Processes of biosorption of heavy metal ions. Precipitation of heavy metal ions into insoluble form with the help of metabolites of microorganisms. Processes of sulfatreduction in the detoxification of sewage sludge.
- Biotechnologies in agriculture and allied industries
Biotechnology in green agriculture. Biopreparations with different effects in agriculture. Biofertilizers. Biopesticides. Environmental safety of biotechnology products in processing and food industry. Genetically modified products.
- Bioeconomy
Bioeconomy growth in different countries of the world. Interrelation of circular economy with bioeconomy. The green course of biotechnology development in various industrial sectors.
- Overview of biogas potential in the world
Biogas and the prospects for the development of its potential in the world: the experience and difficulties arising in the current economic realities. Feasibility study of the introduction of biogas technology in chosen countries (Vietnam, Zambia, Ukraine and others). The potential of waste and stages of development of bioenergy.
- Issues of phosphogypsum deposition and its application. Bioenergy processes of organic waste recycling and phosphogypsum utilization. Issues of phosphogypsum deposition and its application in bioprocesses.
Is phosphogypsum a waste or a resource? Current trends in the use of phosphogypsum. Involvement of phosphogypsum in bioprocesses for the production of bio-based products: a development perspective.
- Low Rank Coal Bio-Utilization
Low-rank coal (LRC) the potential of its use of maximum efficiency in biotechnologies for the production of biofuels and other useful bio-based products. Effect of impurities in LRC and complex organic components on its biodegradation. Processes of anaerobic conversion of LRC.
- Intensification of anaerobic digestion of wastewater and sewage sludge: trends analysis
Processes of aerobic and anaerobic treatment of wastewater. Implementation of anaerobic digestion processes of sewage sludge at municipal sewage treatment plants. Design solutions of digesters and methods of intensification of biogas production.
- Modelling of Biofuel Production in Climate Change Adaptation Technologies
Trends in the production of different types of biofuels. Biomethane and methods of its production. Desulfurization of biogas by biological method. Phosphogypsum as a material for cell immobilization. Modelling of hydrogen sulphide biooxidation by thiobacteria to produce elemental sulphur.
- Restoration of bioproductivity of radiation-contaminated soils
Processes of radionuclide migration into the environment: natural and man-made sources. Deactivation of radioactively contaminated territories and importance of biotechnology in remediation of such lands. Biopreparations and matrix materials for radionuclide fixation. Ecological safety development of Chernobyl Biosphere Reserve.