Martine E Fischbach

I am a PhD-student in the research group "Microbial Biotechnology" at the Department of Molecular Sciences at SLU, campus Ultuna in Uppsala.
In my project, I am working on strategies to reduce the presence of plastics in digestate, a nutrient-rich product from the biogas production process that can be used as fertilizer in agriculture.

I am also part of a Marie-Curie doctoral network where the overall aim is to develop “Innovative, Circular Solutions For Wastewater Treatment Sludge” (INCLUE, https://inclue.eu). The INCLUE-network consists of 11 PhD-students, located in 7 European countries and who collaborate with each other to reach the common project goal.
 
Furthermore, I have several collaborations outside of the INCLUE-network, with public research institutes in Europe, with Swedish and international biodegradable plastic manufacturers as well as with biogas plant operators.

A potential solution to reduce plastic contamination in digestate from biogas plants is the use of biodegradable plastics (BP) in different applications, such as food packaging and organic waste collection bags. However, little is known about the fate of BP in biogas reactors (an anaerobic environment) as most of these plastics are only tested for their degradability in composting facilities (an aerobic environment). My projects aims to fill this knowledge gap and provide insights into the degradability of BP in biogas production systems, as well as the impact of these materials on the process and quality of the final digestate.
Another focus of my project lies on wastewater treatment sludge as biogas substrate. This residual product from the wastewater treatment process can be used as substrate to produce biogas, but often contains a large amount of small plastic particles (so-called microplastics). My project aims to investigate how wastewater treatment sludge can be used in biogas production systems without contaminating the digestate with plastics, and thus the soil if it is used as fertilizer.

I am a teacher in the laboratory part of the bachelor course BI1440 "Genetics, cell biology and microbiology".