Review

Microalgae for the production of bulk chemicals and biofuels

Rene H Wijffels, Bioprocess Engineering, Wageningen University, the Netherlands Maria J Barbosa, Food and Biobased Research, Wageningen University and Research Center, the Netherlands Michel H M Eppink, Bioprocess Engineering, Wageningen University, the Netherlands Received January 19, 2010; revised March 17, 2010; accepted March 18, 2010 Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI: 10.1002/bbb/215; Biofuels, Bioprod. Bioref. 4:287295 (2010) Abstract: The feasibility of microalgae production for biodiesel was discussed. Although algae are not yet produced at large scale for bulk applications, there are opportunities to develop this process in a sustainable way. It remains unlikely, however, that the process will be developed for biodiesel as the only end product from microalgae. In order to develop a more sustainable and economically feasible process, all biomass components (e.g. proteins, lipids, carbohydrates) should be used and therefore biorening of microalgae is very important for the selective separation and use of the functional biomass components. If biorening of microalgae is applied, lipids should be fractionated into lipids for biodiesel, lipids as a feedstock for the chemical industry and w -3 fatty acids, proteins and carbohydrates for food, feed and bulk chemicals, and the oxygen produced should be recovered also. If, in addition, production of algae is done on residual nutrient feedstocks and CO2, and production of microalgae is done on a large scale against low production costs, production of bulk chemicals and fuels from microalgae will become economically feasible. In order to obtain that, a number of bottlenecks need to be removed and a multidisciplinary approach in which systems biology, metabolic modeling, strain development, photobioreactor design and operation, scale-up, biorening, integrated production chain, and the whole system design (including logistics) should be addressed. 2010 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Keywords: microalgae; bulk chemicals; biorenery process design

Introduction
icroalgae are receiving a lot of attention presently because of their potential use as a feedstock for the production of biodiesel. Worldwide research programs are initiated to develop technology for the production of biodiesel from microalgae and many new companies have been developed and most probably will develop in the future.

Microalgae have potentially an areal productivity superior to traditional agricultural crops.1,2 Realistic estimates for areal productivity are in the order of magnitude of 40-80 tonnes of dry matter per year depending on the technology used and the location of production.3 In many cases, estimates published are too high and sometimes higher than theoretically possible. These overestimations lead to unrealistic expectations; even in the European Union Research and Development framework, consortia are invited to submit

Correspondence to: Rene H. Wijffels, Wageningen University, Bioprocess Engineering, PO Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, the Netherlands. E-mail: rene.wijffels@wur.nl

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proposals to develop demonstration projects with the objective of establishing a 10 ha production facility with productivity between 90 and 120 tonnes of dry algal biomass per year. The objective is to build three of these demonstration plants (www.cordis.europa.eu: FP7-ENERGY-2010-2 BIOFUEL FROM ALGAE). In contrast to terrestrial crops, hardly any production capacity for microalgae exists at this stage. Production is done in niche markets for high-value products, such as the most common products carotenoids and w -3-fatty acids. The world production of microalgae is about 5 million kg of dry biomass with a total market volume of 1.25 billion. The market price of microalgae is on average 250/kg dry biomass.4 Nevertheless, microalgae are considered a very promising crop for production of biofuels due to their high areal productivity in comparison to terrestrial crops and the lack of competition for land that is suitable for agriculture microalgae can be grown on seawater. To make microalgae really interesting as a source of biofuels, the cost price for production needs to be reduced and the scale of production needs to be increased significantly. We believe that technically this will be feasible, but it will take a tremendous effort to realize this and we expect that development to a commercial process will at least take 10 years.5 Simultaneously with the development of the technology, it is important to pay attention to the design of the whole system taking into account the logistics of water, nutrient, and CO2 supply and a complete life cycle analysis to determine at which scale and locations production needs to take place. For production of algal biomass for biodiesel purposes, it is essential that the production capacity (hectares of culture) increases and the cost of production decreases dramatically. Presently there is no significant algal production capacity; the technology is immature and needs to be fully developed, implying that a large effort in research, pilot studies, and demonstration studies is required. It is unrealistic to expect that the technology of algal production will be competitive for the energy market within the coming five years but with sufficient effort it might become attractive after ten. Microalgae contain 3060% lipids that can be converted into biodiesel.6 The value for diesel is presently 0.50/liter. This indicates that the production cost of microalgae may not be higher than 0.40/kg, excluding costs of extraction

and conversion of lipids into biodiesel. If, however, the technology develops, the production capacity will gradually increase and the production cost will reduce. As capacity increases and the prices go down, new markets will open and markets will evolve from niche products toward food, feed, pharma, bulk chemicals, and fi nally also fuels. In this review, we will describe the present status of the technology and discuss the potential cost price of production as well as the need for biorefining for development of sustainable markets. Finally, we will describe the ideal agenda for research and development of algal technology. The present hype around microalgae is not realistic, but if we have the patience and the resources to develop fundamental and applied research, the technology will develop as an important pillar of sustainable production of large quantities of biomass for food, feed, bulk chemicals, and energy.

Biodiesel from microalgae

Microalgae accumulate large quantities of hydrophobic compounds. The best example of that is Botryococcus braunii. Botryococcus braunii does not produce lipids, but less oxygenated isoprenoids; almost alkane-like structures with approximately 32 to 38 C-atoms. These components can be used in existing oil refineries. The concentration of these compounds can be as high as 70% of the biomass. In addition, the cell wall of Botryococcus is thin and the oil can be easily extracted. The cells almost spontaneously excrete these oils (Fig. 1). Unfortunately, Botryococcus is difficult to culture and

Figure 1. Botryococcus braunii excretes oil spontaneously.

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Review: Microalgae for bulk chemicals and biofuels

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therefore isnt so much used in development of processes for production of biodiesel from microalgae. This example, however, shows that oil excretion could simplify part of the biorefinery approach for other algae strains with oil excretion. The production of lipids from microalgae, preferably tri-acylglycerides, is receiving the most attention. The concentration varies between 20 and 60%. Accumulation to high concentrations in lipid globules generally takes place after stress.7 First algae are grown and then they need to be stressed for example by nutrient limitation to induce accumulation of lipids. Generally the biomass productivity decreases substantially under these stress conditions. At present, hardly any algae are produced for the production of lipids for biofuels. Estimates are therefore very rough. We estimate that with algae it will be possible to produce 20 00080 000 liters of lipids per hectare per year. On the basis of the present technology, the productivity will not be higher than 20 000 liters per hectare per year; if the technology develops, we might eventually reach 80 000 liters per year. This is considerably higher than production via terrestrial crops: palm and rapeseed oils are produced at 6000 and 1500 liters per hectare per year, respectively. Lipids need to be extracted from the microalgae to produce biodiesel. There are two processes to convert the lipids into biodiesel: esterification and hydrogenation. In the case of esterification, the glycerol esters are converted into methyl esters.1 By catalytic hydro conversion, triglycerides are converted into linear hydrocarbon chains. In hydrogenation, the lipids are converted into alkanes.8

systems were designed: an open pond raceway system, a tubular photobioreactor and a flat panel reactor. Designs were made at a scale of 1 hectare and at 100 hectares to understand the effect of scale. The objective was not only to calculate the absolute cost of production of 1 kg of algae, but also to understand the cost factors involved in order to be able to optimize the process. The designs were based on industrial processes; costs for tubing, maintenance, and operation were taken into account. In the designs, we made conservative estimates: for example, we used solar conditions in the Netherlands with a moderate climate; if plastic materials were used for the photobioreactor, it was assumed that the plastic needed to be renewed every year; we assumed productivities that are currently obtained at large scale with these techniques; and we assumed we had to buy CO2 and nutrients. As an example, the production cost is shown in a flat panel reactor system at a scale of 1 ha. The cost of production is approximately 9/kg. The main cost factors in this case are power and labor (Fig. 2). If the system is scaled up, labor costs can be reduced significantly. The cost price for biomass in a reactor of 100 ha is about 4/kg. A cost price of 4/kg would be acceptable for the production of biomass for high-value compounds but unacceptable for the production of biodiesel. More than 24% of the cost was for energy consumption; i.e. pumping around of water and sparging of air/CO2 in the system. As a matter of fact, the energy input was larger than the energy chemically stored in the biomass, which makes the technology unsuitable for production of biodiesel. We have to realize, however, that there has never been a driver for those commercial companies currently operating in the field of microalgae to reduce the cost of energy. The cost of energy in this example is less than 2/kg biomass. The total value of algal biomass for high-value products is about 100/kg, which means there is hardly any driver for the industry to reduce energy input. In order to evaluate whether cost prices could be significantly reduced if the technology is further developed for biodiesel production, we performed a sensitivity analysis and studied the effect of reducing specific cost factors; for example, the source of CO2 and nutrients. In our cost calculations, we assumed that these feeds had to be bought and we then looked at the effect of getting these resources

Feasibility study
Although large-scale processes for biodiesel production from algae have not been developed, expectations of algae for this application are very high. Production of algae needs to take place on a large scale and against minimal costs. Currently, algal products are on the market for equivalent biomass values two orders of magnitude higher than they may be for biodiesel production. The question is whether algal biomass can be produced at a cost below 0.50/kg. For this reason, we executed a feasibility study. In this feasibility study, process designs were made for production of algae in systems that could be built with the present technology, without further technological advances. Three

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1 ha

7.9 / kg biomass

100 ha
Iron frame Centrifuge Feed Pump Medium Feed pump Harvest broth storage tank Automatic Weighing Station with Silos Installations costs Piping Polyethylene Carbon dioxide Air filters Labor Maintenance Centrifuge westfalia separator AG Medium Filter Unit Medium preparation tank Seawater pump station Air Blowers Instrumentation and control Buildings Culture medium Media Filters Power Payroll charges General plant overheads

4.0 / kg biomass

potential

0.4 / kg biomass 15 /GJ

Figure 2. Costs and cost factors for the design of at panel photobioreactors at a scale of 1 and 100 ha.

for free if they were obtained from residues. Another factor we analyzed was a reduction of energy input to 10% of the original value. We also assumed we could raise the productivity by assuming a photosynthetic efficiency of 7% instead of the 5% we originally used. Finally we assumed that the process would be applied in an area with more sunshine: the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean. If all these factors were included, a cost price for biomass production of 0.40/kg could be obtained. The cost prices of the other processes (raceway pond and flat panel reactor) were in the same order of magnitude. There was, however, a difference in the cost reduction that could be obtained. While in the tubular photobioreactor, we could reduce the cost price by 90% after optimization, we could only reduce the costs in a raceway pond by 50%. The reason for this is that raceway ponds are used much more at larger scale and there is less room for improvement in these systems. Although generally assumed that production in photobioreactors is much more expensive than in a raceway system, we found that after optimization, cost prices in closed systems were actually lower than in a raceway pond.

cost price of biomass production to 0.40/kg. If we assume that algae contain 40% lipids and the value of biodiesel is 0.50/liter, the value of the biomass used for biodiesel production is only 0.20/kg. It also needs to be considered that costs for extracting the lipid and converting the lipids into biodiesel were not taken into account. This means that it will not be feasible to produce algae solely for the production of biodiesel. For this reason we looked at the possibility of refining algal biomass into different products and analyzed the total value of the biomass. We did not assume a combination of highvalue products in niche markets because the market volumes of high-value products and biodiesel are incompatible. We assumed biorefining of algal biomass into products for bulk markets making use of the functionality of the products. The case is randomly chosen and is only used to analyze whether

Biorening of microalgae
The next question is whether it is economically feasible to produce biodiesel from microalgae if we are able to reduce
Figure 3. Value of algal biomass per 1000 kg after biorening.

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the total value of the biomass produced is sufficient to allow production costs of 0.40/kg (Fig. 3). We assumed production of algal biomass consisting of 40% lipids, 50% proteins and 10% carbohydrates. A more detailed overview is presented in Carioca et al.6 If the lipid fraction is not only used for production of biodiesel but also as a feedstock for the chemical industry (e.g. in coatings) or for edible oils (e.g. w -3-fatty acids) the lipid fraction of the algae increases in value. We assumed in this case that 25% of the lipids is used for these functional products with an estimated value of 2/kg and 75% is used for biodiesel production with a value of 0.50/kg. In addition, proteins could be fractionated into a water soluble fraction (e.g. Rubisco) of 20% and a water insoluble fraction of 80%, taking into account that the water soluble fraction has a food value (5/kg) and the insoluble fraction a feed value (0.75/kg). Finally a carbohydrate fraction of 10% was assumed. The carbohydrates in algae are very low in cellulose. They are, in general, storage products such as fructans, glucans, and glycerol which can be used as chemical building blocks or for production of bioenergy. We assumed the value of carbohydrates to be 1/kg. Besides these main products, there are additional byproducts, such as reduction of nutrients in waste streams and production of oxygen. In waste-water treatment, the removal of nitrogen compounds via nitrification and denitrification is an expensive process; the cost of nitrogen removal is 2/kg. Microalgae contain 70 kg of nitrogen per 1000 kg of microalgae. If algal production would be combined with waste-water treatment we would save 140 for nitrification and denitrification per ton of algae produced. A similar analysis could be made for phosphate. Algae produce oxygen-rich gas. Per ton of algae 1600 kg of oxygen-rich gas is produced. In aquaculture, oxygen-rich gas is used for supply of sufficient oxygen to the fish. The value of the gas produced is approximately 0.16/kg of oxygen. If the total value of all these products is added up, we come to a total value of the biomass of 1.65/kg of algae. Of course the refining of these components will be at a certain cost. The analysis shows, however, that if algal biorefining is used, the total value is higher (1.65/kg) than the total cost for algae production (0.40/kg) and makes it worthwhile to develop this approach.

Overall, we can conclude that the production of only biodiesel from microalgae is economically not feasible but that an integrated biorefinery concept of microalgae with biodiesel as one of the products can lead to a feasible process.

Development of a new technology

We have shown that the production of microalgae for coproduction of biodiesel and bulk chemicals can become economically feasible. In addition, if the technology develops, we expect that the cost price of production of microalgae will reduce gradually. Microalgae are now produced for high-value products in niche markets; however, if the cost price of production goes down; it is expected that new markets will open with every step in reduction. Initially, most probably the production of edible oils for food and fish feed will become feasible, but after some time production of bulk chemicals, biomaterials, and biodiesel may also become feasible. For that the technology needs to develop from a smallsized activity to an industrial scale technology. We expect that such a development will at least take ten years. For that a multidisciplinary approach needs to be developed as schematically shown in Fig. 4. Systems biology Systems biology in microalgae has hardly been developed. In the first place, algae originate from different families,

Figure 4. Multidisciplinary approach for development of industrial algae production.

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varying from prokaryotes like cyanobacteria to eukaryotes like green algae (chlorophytes). Establishing industrial production with algae requires among others, in-depth knowledge of basic biological functions and tools for steering the metabolism, with the objective of improving, for example, the photosynthetic efficiency in photobioreactors or enhancing lipid productivity. Th is can be done by an optimal design of conditions inside the reactor or by metabolic engineering. A key technology in the successful application of both optimal conditions design and metabolic engineering is the availability of well-annotated genomes and quantitative tools for genome-scale metabolic models that permit understanding and manipulation of the genome. There are still very few algae for which full or near-full genome sequences have been obtained and transvection systems have barely been developed. An additional challenge remains to integrate the genome datasets with datasets from other levels of biological organization. An integrated approach using state-of-the-art technologies, such as genome sequencing, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, metabolic modeling (fluxomics), and bioinformatics, is needed in order to gain the best possible insight into metabolic pathways leading to the product of interest. Th is systems biology approach is the basis for the enhancement of the physiological properties of algae strains and the optimization of algae production systems. Even though this approach is used more and more in microbial and plant sciences, it is still new in algal biology. It is expected that research in this field will develop quickly and tools will become available to improve photosynthesis in algae, to enhance productivity of lipids in microalgae, and many other features that may lead to a reduction in cost prices or a higher reliability of the whole process chain. Metabolic ux modeling Genome-based metabolic flux models are in their infancy and are expected to be developed in the coming years. With these metabolic flux models, we will be able to understand and steer metabolism in microalgae with the objective of improving, for example, the photosynthetic efficiency in photobioreactors or enhancing lipid productivity. Metabolic flux models can be used both to design the conditions in a

reactor such that a better process is obtained and to target metabolic engineering approaches. Strain development Only a few microalgal strains are produced commercially (e.g. Spirulina, Chlorella, Dunaliella, Haematococcsu and Nannochloropsis). These strains are probably not the best strains for the production of biodiesel. For this reason we need to screen for new strains or modify the strains such that optimal production of lipids for biodiesel becomes feasible. Ideally microalgae should have the following qualities: High productivity (of metabolites) The productivity of biomass should be high. If it is possible to produce large quantities of biomass per surface area, the cost of production reduces significantly. In addition to productivity of biomass, the productivity of metabolites, such as lipids, should also be high. Very often the process is done in two stages. Biomass is grown and then stressed at which stage the lipids start to accumulate. Although the concentration of lipids obtained is high, the volumetric productivity is in general low. It is important to select or improve strains in such a way that a high productivity in lipids is obtained. High yield on light Related to productivity is the yield on light. The maximum yield on solar light is 9%. In practice, it is a lot lower. Strains have already been developed with smaller antenna sizes allowing a higher photosynthetic yield at high light intensities. Robust The process, and consequently the microalgae, needs to be robust. For biodiesel production, the scale of production needs to be so large that axenic operation or advanced process control will hardly be possible. The strains therefore need to be stable under production circumstances and stronger than possible infections. Ideally it should be possible to grow the algae on a large scale under extreme conditions such as high or low pH, high temperatures, or high salinity. Grow at high pH While the supply of CO2 is essential for growth of algae at high productivities, it is also an important cost factor. Ideally CO2 should be used from the atmosphere, but the

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RH Wijffels, MJ Barbosa, MHM Eppink

concentration is too low to make high productivities possible. Alternatively, the CO2 source is a residual gas that needs to be bubbled through the water column. As gas bubbling already requires energy, it is important that the mass transfer of CO2 is efficient. At high pH (1011), the mass transfer is much higher and in addition the operational conditions are selective. Insensitive for oxygen Microalgae produce oxygen. In many processes, oxygen accumulates to high concentrations. At high concentrations of oxygen, the productivity of microalgae reduces considerably. Nevertheless, we would prefer to operate processes at high oxygen concentrations because degassing of the system requires energy and oxygen-rich gas is a nice byproduct. Flocculate Harvesting microalgae is expensive. Microalgae are small and mostly individual cells. For that reason centrifugation is mostly used as a harvesting method. The biomass concentration is in general also low. Centrifugation of diluted streams requires a large-capacity centrifuge and consequently harvesting is expensive. If algae flocculate, harvesting costs could be reduced significantly and fi ltration, sedimentation or flotation can be used for harvesting instead of centrifugation. Ideally

algae would flocculate spontaneously at a certain stage of the process. Large cells with a thin cell wall Microalgae are, in general, relatively small and have a thick cell wall. In order to break cells to extract the products, very harsh conditions need to be used (e.g. mechanical, chemical, physical stress). This makes breaking up cells not only very expensive but also affects the functionality of compounds like proteins. Ideally the extraction could be so mild that water extraction at low temperatures can be applied. This requires cells that are easy to break but are strong enough that no shear damage takes place during production. Small spherical cells with a thick cell wall, like Nannochloropsis, clearly are not the ideal algae for this reason.

Photobioreactor design and operation The ideal photobioreactor requires low investment costs and low operational costs but still has a high productivity and is scalable. Design of photobioreactors is not easy as a large surface-to-volume ratio is required for efficient supply of solar light. At the same time, the high surface-to-volume ratio makes scale-up difficult in respect to mass and heat transfer. On top of that, solar conditions change continuously. Many types of photobioreactors have been developed and probably

(A)

(B)

Figure 5. Thin plastic lm photobioreactor of Proviron (A) and Solix Biofuels (B).

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many more will still be developed. For evaluation of designs, it is important to compare performance of the different systems under the same operational conditions for longer periods of time. In the feasibility analysis we showed that photobioreactors could become competitive if investment costs were reduced significantly. Investment costs should be less than 15/m2.9 Thin plastic fi lm bioreactors are presently developed for this reason. Examples are shown in Fig. 5. Scale-up Developments in the microalgae field are mainly driven by end users. For the end users there is a limited supply of biomass to develop further processes. For this reason only, some production capacity needs to be realized. Single products like biodiesel from algae can then be developed and tested and the biorefi nery program can be developed. In addition, there is no or hardly any experience with production of algae on a larger scale under outdoor conditions for longer periods of time. For this reason, it is very important not only to do research at laboratory scale but also to develop pilot programs to evaluate and compare their performance as a basis for design of demonstration-scale facilities. In order to facilitate quick development of the technology research at laboratory scale, pilot scale and demonstration scale programs should run parallel with a good exchange of information such that technology developed in the laboratory can be tested under realistic conditions and research at laboratory scale can be done for the problems encountered at large scale. Biorenery Economical, feasible production of microalgae for biodiesel will only be possible if it is combined with production of bulk chemicals and food and feed ingredients. Research and development of biorefineries is therefore very important in this field to explore mild cell disruption, and extraction and separation technologies on algal biomass. Compounds such as w -3-fatty acids, carbohydrates, pigments, vitamins, and proteins should maintain their functionality in this process and at the same time scalability, low energy costs, and ease of use also need to be taken into account.

Integrated process chain So far, individual productions steps have been discussed and it is highly recommended to develop an integrated algae production chain by combining the different process units into a complete process. Uncertainties in specific process units (upstream) may have an impact on the process units downstream in the production chain. Therefore, whole production processes, upstream and downstream, should be developed and tested on pilot and demonstration scales. Systems design Production of microalgae on a large scale will be complex with respect to logistics and space needed. Productivity of microalgae does not only depend on the availability of sunlight, but on the availability of land, water resources, CO2 , and nutrients as well. Transport of the different feedstocks over long distances most probably is not a feasible option. This makes it more difficult to determine beforehand what the best locations for production are and what the scale of production should be. At this moment it is unclear if future algae production plants will be of enormous scale or whether it will become an activity similar to farming land crops nowadays. To design the system processes, logistics and Life Cycle Assessments needs to be analyzed.

Conclusions
We have discussed production of microalgae for biodiesel. We have shown that although algae are not yet produced on a large scale for bulk applications, there are opportunities to develop these processes in a sustainable way. However, it is unlikely that the process will be developed for biodiesel as the sole end product. In order to develop a sustainable and economically feasible process, all biomass components should be used; therefore biorefining of microalgae is very important for the development of the technology. The production technology of microalgae is, however, immature and efforts have to be made to develop an economical sector. In respect to the development of the technology, it is proposed to develop multidisciplinary research on systems biology, metabolic flux modeling, strain development, photobioreactor design, scale-up, biorefi ning, integrated process chain, and systems design.

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References
1. Chisti Y, Biodiesel from microalgae. Biotechnol Advances 25: 294306 (2007). 2. Clarens AF, Resurreccion EP, White MA and Colosi LM, Environmental life cycle comparison of algae to other bioenergy feedstocks. Env Sci Technol 44:18131819 (2010). 3. Wijffels RH, Potential of sponges and microalgae for marine biotechnology. Trends Biotechnol 26: 2631(2008). 4. Pulz O and Gross W, Valuable products from biotechnology of microalgae. Appl Microb Biotechnol 65: 635648 (2004). 5. Barcley B, Algae oil production. Keynote lecture at the Algal Biomass Organization 2009 summit, San Diego; October 79 (2009). 6. Carioca JOB, Hiluy Filho JJ, Leal MRLV and Macambira FS, The hard choice for alternative biofuels to diesel in Brazil. Biotechno Adv 27: 10431050 (2009). 7. Rodol L, Chini Zittelli G, Bassi N, Padovani G, Biondi N, Bonini M and Tredici MR, Microalgae for oil: strain selection, induction of lipid synthesis and outdoor mass cultivation in a low-cost photobioreactor. Biotechnol Bioeng 102:100112 (2009).

8. Lestari S, Mki-Avela P, Beltramini J, Lu GQM and Murzin DY, Transforming triglycerides and fatty acids into biofuels. ChemSusChem DOI 10.1002/cssc.200900107 (2009). 9. Schenk PM, Thomas-Hall SR,Stephens E, Marx UC, Mussgnug JH, Posten C, et al., Second generation biofuels: High-efciency microalgae for biodiesel production. Bioenerg Res 1(1): 2043 (2008).

Dr Maria Barbosa Dr Maria Barbosa is a researcher at the business unit Biobased Products at Wageningen University and Research Centre. Her present area of expertise is the cultivation and biorefining of microalgae, with a focus on applied research. Dr Barbosa holds a PhD in Bioprocess Engineering obtained at Wageningen University.

Dr Ren H. Wijffels Dr Ren H. Wijffels is a professor at Wageningen University. He heads the Bioprocess Engineering Group which is researching the development of new biotechnological processes for manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, healthy food ingredients, bulk chemicals, and biofuels. Dr Wijffels received his MSc in Environmental Technology and his PhD in Bioprocess Engineering.

Dr Michel Eppink Dr Michel Eppink is Associate Professor at the Bioprocess Engineering Group at Wageningen University. He is also Department Head of Downstream Processing at the Biopharmaceutical Division of Synthon BV. Dr Eppink received his MSc in Biology/Chemistry in 1993 from the University of Utrecht and his PhD in 1999 from the Agriculture University of Wageningen.

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