Wednesday, 11 March 2020, 10:30 a.m.

Benjamin Schupp successfully defend his thesis titled "Nitrogen fixation in hydrogenotrophic methanogenic Archaea"

MoSys Seminarraum, room 1.320.

Wednesday, 11 March 2020, 10:30 a.m.

Supervisors: Simon Rittmann, Christa Schleper
Opponents: Christa Schleper, Stefanie Wienkoop, Michael Schagerl

"The study focused on examining N2-fixing properties of selected hydrogenotrophic methanogenic archaeal type strains grown on chemically defined minimal medium for elucidating and optimizing the rates of methanogenesis and N2 fixation in closed batch and fed-batch mode. Therefore, preselected mesophilic and thermophilic strains were screened under N2-fixing conditions in closed batch with a gas phase consisting of N2/H2/CO2. One strain was prioritized for fed-batch cultivations. Adaption experiments with different concentrations of NH4+ in the medium were performed. The prioritized strain was grown in a bioreactor to optimise the rate of N2 fixation and the conversion of H2/CO2 to CH4 in parallel. Diazotrophic growth was measured via optical density (OD578nm), N2 uptake and CH4 production was measured via GC."

Congratulations Benjamin!