EII’s competence in environmental technology is mostly focussed on the areas of water/sewage treatment, environmental remediation, renewable energy and isolation of microbes of potential industrial interest from the environment. We have experience in cultivating several groups of industrially important bacteria, applying modern molecular methods to microbial community analysis, biodegradable plastics, enzyme and strain screening and optimization of microbial fermentation processes. Our experts also deal with monitoring of ecosystems related to fisheries and with morphometrical analysis of fish. This research is supported by good knowledge of mathematical modelling of synergetic processes and stability of dynamic systems.

More specifically our research interests and expertises lay in:

• Biomass processing: hydrothermal and enzymatic pre-treatment of different ligno-cellulosic materials, design of pre-treatment process and equipment, operations research.
• Water/sewage treatment and isolation of microbes
• Characterizing microbial communities from a variety of environments
• Chemical engineering: unit processing, pilot plant design and operation, process optimisation and continuous improvement.
• Environmental engineering: utilization of organic wastes, biogas, biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol technologies.
• Methods used to analyse chemical and physical parameters of soil
• Cultivating pseudomonads, cellulolytes, nitrifying bacteria and lactic acid bacteria
• DNA and RNA extraction from environmental and faecal samples
• Gene expression analyses from environmental samples using real-time quantitative PCR.
• Strain screening and isolation.
• Molecular community fingerprinting using PCR and DGGE
• Gene expression analyses from environmental samples using real-time quantitative PCR
• Molecular cloning and DNA sequencing.
  

Projects: Adapond
Contact person: Mari-Liis Ots, mari-liis.ots@pera.com