Second SEC technology tour to Zwingenberg
The Senior Experts in Chemistry (SEC) met with the retirees of the VAA plant group Industriepark Wolfgang (Hanau) on 16 June 2009 for the second SEC Technology Tour in Zwingenberg on the Bergstrasse. After a tour of Zwingenberg, the ascent to Auerbach Castle began through the vineyards, where Riesling thrives on granite soil. It is precisely this terroir that gives the Bergstrasse wine the mineral freshness for which it is so popular.
A knowledgeable guide provided facts about the castle and the history of the Middle Ages at Auerbach Castle. The Counts of Katzenelnbogen built the mighty castle in 1222 to secure their sinecure on the Bergstrasse against the powerful Electorate of Mainz. When the family died out in 1479, their considerable fortune went to the Landgraviate of Hesse. With the weather now bright and sunny, the pensioners refreshed themselves with a picnic in the castle courtyard before making their way back to Zwingenberg.Termites
In Zwingenberg, they were met by Holger Zinke and Martin Langer from BRAIN (Biotechnology Research and Information Network). The company is a pioneer and leader in white biotechnology. This specialist field utilises the entire toolbox of nature to replace conventional processes in the chemical industry with more environmentally friendly biological processes. Zinke, who holds a doctorate in molecular genetics, is CEO of Brain and was honoured with the German Environmental Award in 2008 [Nachr. Chem. 2008,56,1157].
In the most impressive way, the visitors learnt about the enormous variety of chemical processes that take place in nature. For example, in a microorganism called Acidanus ambivalens, which feels at home at 80° C and a pH value of 2.5. It has a cell membrane, albeit a somewhat unusual one, and produces the same amino acids in its interior as higher organisms, for example. And that's not all: it needs nothing other than sulphur, carbon dioxide and ammonia to live. This is enough to make seasoned industrial chemists crane their necks: a whole range of chemical processes based on CO2 and only sulphur as an energy source!
Or the termites, which are known to live exclusively on wood, although - like us humans - they are not actually able to digest the components of wood. To do this, they cultivate microorganisms in their digestive tract that produce cellulases and hemicellulases to break down the wood. Naturally, these microorganisms are passed on from generation to generation!
The special expertise of BRAIN's employees lies in the fact that they extract the DNA of numerous organisms from any given sample extremely gently and analyse their sequence. Even if the organisms themselves cannot be cultivated for the most part, their DNA fragments can be cloned and stored in a format that allows them to be screened at any time. A centrepiece of Brain is therefore a rapidly growing metagenome library of currently 200 million clones. They encode a wealth of new enzymes or entire metabolic processes - nature's toolbox.
The list of BRAIN's cooperation partners reads like a Who's Who of the chemical and biochemical industry. BRAIN is working with them on projects such as detergent enzymes that break down dirt particles at 40°C instead of 60°C. In Germany alone, this would mean 1.3-106 tonnes less CO2 emissions!
The visitors would also like to take this opportunity to thank Holger Zinke and Martin Langer. They made a significant contribution to ensuring that the excursion to the Bergstrasse in early summer had a scientific highlight. This also shows how keen the senior citizens at BRAIN were to engage in discussion, even though they had travelled almost four hours on foot. Biochemistry to touch and taste was served at the end at the "Goldener Löwen", the headquarters of the Simon-Bürkle winery in Zwingenberg.
Wolfgang Gerhartz