Environmental microbial biotechnology

The course aims to provide students with the basic knowledge in the ecology of the environmental microbial communities, the "environmental microbiomes": how they are selected in natural and man-made ecosystems and how they can be explored and exploited to obtain an environmental benefit. This knowledge will be applied to the main environmental biotechnologies in order to understand their functioning and the scope for improvement.

The student will i) acquire the basic elements for the comprehension of the ecological and physiological mechanisms which sustain the functionality of environmental microbial communities, ii) understand the rational behind the "microbial resource management" approach in environmental biotechnologies, iii) gain an understanding about the main environmental microbial biotechnologies like bioremediation, sustainable bioenergy production and wastewater treatment, in terms of consolidated practices, problems still to be solved and research trends.