The development of competitive sustainable technologies for the production of fuels and value added chemicals using renewable biomass sources is of great interest with respect to preventing global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to secure the future supply of energy in the form of e.g. fuel for transportation. The main biofuel commercially available today is first generation bioethanol, which is derived from sugar or starch rich crop such as sugarcane, corn and sugar beet, and is currently mainly produced in Brazil and the USA.   The market demand for biofuels is increasing rapidly, and this has called for the development of processes for utilization of lignocellulosic biomass such as wood and agricultural waste, for the production of second generation biofuels.

At the Department of Biotechnology at SINTEF Materials and Chemistry we focus on key research areas, including fermentation optimization and strain development, important for the development of biotechnological processes with the aim of increasing the cost-effectiveness of the entire process-chain for 2nd generation bioalcohol production. In this effort we collaborate with other departments at SINTEF who are working on improvement of other process steps, such as the separation of bioalcohols from the fermentation broth and process integration for efficient energy use. Furthermore, we collaborate with national and international industry and R&D partners in this field.