Lars Angenent appointed ISMET Fellow

Lars Angenent conducts his research at the Environmental and Geoscience Center (GUZ) at the University of Tübingen. In his laboratory, he is investigating how microbes can be used to process organic waste or industrial waste gases such as carbon dioxide. Ultimately, the technology can help reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. For example, he "feeds" carbon dioxide and hydrogen to microbes to obtain methane that can be put into the gas grid. He obtains the necessary hydrogen by electrolysis from water, and the energy for electrolysis from wind power. In this way, the methane produced is sustainable - unlike gas extracted from fossil deposits. He works on combining electrolysis and microbes in one microbial electrochemical system.

Lars Angenent has already tested the process in industrial applications via the start-up Electrochaea. Angenent has been a Humboldt Professor at the University of Tübingen since 2017. Angenent is awardee of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 2023, the most important research award in Germany.