Dr. Heike Sträuber
Contact
Dr. Heike Sträuber
Scientist
Department of Environmental Microbiology
Working Group Microbiology of Anaerobic Systems
Helmholtz Centre for
Environmental Research - UFZ
Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
in cooperation with
Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum (DBFZ)
Torgauer Str. 116, 04347 Leipzig, Germany
Phone +49 341 2434-563
heike.straeuber@ufz.de

CV / Scientific Career
since 2015
Senior scientist in the Research Group Microbiology of Anaerobic Systems at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Department of Environmental Microbiology
2010 – 2014
Research fellow at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ,
Department of Bioenergy
2007 – 2009
Research fellow in the Research Group Flow Cytometry at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
2005
Postdoc at the SIAB – Saxon Institute for Applied Biotechnology
2002 – 2003
Postdoc in the Research Group Microbial Physiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
1997 – 2001
PhD student in the Research Group Microbial Physiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ and University of Leipzig
1992 – 1997
MSc Biochemistry, University of Leipzig
Research interests
My work focuses on gaining a deeper understanding of microbial relationships and activities in the anaerobic fermentation process. This aims at a higher efficiency of processes for the production of carboxylate platform chemicals (e.g. short and medium-chain fatty acids as well as branched and unbranched VFA) or methane from biomass. The effects of secondary plant metabolites and additives like trace elements are evaluated. Microbial chain elongation with lactic acid and ethanol as well as the combination with syngas fermentation is of special interest. Besides CSTRs, mainly solid-state fermentation systems (leach-bed reactors) are used for the anaerobic fermentation of plant biomass (dedicated crops) or waste. Metabolic fluxes between microorganisms and behaviour of key players are being analyzed. Process parameters are correlated with microbiological data from molecularbiological analyses (mainly T-RFLP and next generation sequencing) using multivariate statistical tools.
In the last years, the CAPRAFERM® process was developed. This is an anaerobic fermentation process for production of caproic and caprylic acid from complex biomass. In different project, the CAPRAFERM® process is being further developed in the sense of a biorefinery in cooperation with DBFZ (German Biomass Research Centre), other academic partners and large industries. The partners develop the downstream processing and product refining and test the chemicals in specific end products. Furthermore, we investigate how existing biogas plants can be refitted to biorefineries. This will give biogas plant owners alternative sources of income.
Selected publications
Review:
Book chapters:
Liebetrau J, Weinrich S, Sträuber H, Kretzschmar J (2019): Anaerobic fermentation of organic material: Biological processes and their control parameters. In: Kaltschmidt M (Hrsg.), Energy from organic materials (biomass). Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology Series. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_962-1, Springer, New York, S. 779-807
Liebetrau J, Sträuber H, Kretzschmar J, Denysenko V, Nelles M (2017): Anaerobic Digestion. In: Wagemann, K, Tippkötter, N (Hrsg.), Biorefineries. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, vol 166, doi:10.1007/10_2016_67, Springer, Cham, S. 281-299
Dieckmann C, Edelmann W, Kaltschmitt M, Liebetrau J, Oldenburg S, Ritzkowski M, Scholwin F, Sträuber H, Weinreich S (2016): Biogaserzeugung und –nutzung. In: M. Kaltschmitt, H. Hartmann, H. Hofbauer (Hrsg.), Energie aus Biomasse: Grundlagen, Techniken und Verfahren. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-47438-9_19, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, S. 1609-1635
Research articles:
Bonk F, Popp D, Weinrich S, Sträuber H, Kleinsteuber S, Harms H, Centler F (2018) Ammonia inhibition of anaerobic volatile fatty acid degrading microbial communities. Front Microbiol, 9:2921, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2018.02921
Bonk F, Popp D, Weinrich S, Sträuber H, Kleinsteuber S, Harms H, Centler F (2018) Intermittent fasting for microbes: how discontinuous feeding increases functional stability in anaerobic digestion. Biotechnol Biofuels 11:274, doi:10.1186/s13068-018-1279-5
Urban C, Xu J, Sträuber H, dos Santos Dantas TR, Mühlenberg J, Härtig C, Angenent LT, Harnisch F (2017) Production of drop-in fuel from biomass at high selectivity by combined microbial and electrochemical conversion. Energ Environ Sci 10:2231-2244, doi: 10.1039/C7EE01303E.
Popp D, Plugge C, Kleinsteuber S, Harms H, Sträuber H (2017) Inhibitory effect of coumarin on syntrophic fatty acid oxidizing and methanogenic cultures and biogas reactor microbiomes. Appl Environ Microbiol 83:e00438-17, doi: 10.1128/AEM.00438-17.
Popp D, von Gillhaussen P, Weidlich EWA, Sträuber H, Harms H, Temperton VM (2017) Methane yield of biomass from extensive grassland is affected by compositional changes induced by order of arrival. GCB Bioenergy 9(10):1555-1562, doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12441.
Wintsche B, Glaser K, Sträuber H, Centler F, Liebetrau J, Harms H, Kleinsteuber S (2016): Trace elements induce predominance among methanogenic activity in anaerobic digestion. Front Microbiol. 7:2034, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.02034.