The Institute of Microbiology, headed by Prof. Dr. Heribert Insam, is located at the Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck, Austria. It has a long tradition in environmental microbiological research. Our expertise ranges from bacteria, archaea, and fungi present in different environments, including alpine regions, anaerobe reactors, waste and waste water treatment processes, soil, and compost to environmental toxicology, molecular microbiology, and genetics.

The group of Microbial Resource Management, headed by Prof. Dr. Heribert Insam, is mainly working on anaerobic digestion and waste treatment processes. We investigate the microbe-environment and microbe-microbe interactions in various habitats. The utilization of wastes as resources is one the foci of H. Insam´s group since many years. Current projects investigate the treatment of organic wastes with the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, to produce high quality protein and the fermentation of wastes to lactic acid by their indigenous microbiota. Further projects deal with the application of wood ash as fertilizers and the application of anaerobic fungi in biogas plants to optimise hydrolysis of cellulolytic material.

The core business of Mueller Abfallprojekte GmbH is divided in 2 departments, consulting farmers for the use of compost and biosolids and engineering for waste and waste water technologies. According to the high quality approach of Mueller Abfallprojekte GmbH also upstream services are offered to improve the quality of biowaste and wastewater as the source of high quality compost and biosolids. Horst Mueller is the CEO of Mueller Abfallprojekte GmbH and is an expert in standardisation groups for biological waste treatment at the Austrian Standards Institut since 1987 and is involved for creating standards and legal frameworks in the field of separate collection of biowaste, composting/anaerobic digestion and use of compost. Since 2004 Horst Mueller is also the managing director of the Austrian Compost Quality Association and involved in activities to improve the separate collection of biowaste as well as the quality of compost. The Austrian Compost Quality Association is member in the European Compost Network and Horst Mueller joined some working groups in different fields of biowaste and compost on the European level.

Since 2002 the company is working intensively in the field of solid waste treatment with developing a process technology to produce compost and generate energy out of all kind of solid wastes. Therefore a project called "3A-biogas - Three step fermentation of solid state biowaste for biogas production and sanitation" was initiated. Main target of the 3A-biogas project was to develop a modular prototype batch-system for this alternative three-step fermentation-procedure of solid-state biowaste. The core targets were the definition of the substrate composition and the process parameter specification in order to develop a cost effective control system, the loading and removal of the substrate and the management of the percolation water. Intensive investigations and analyses of the technical requirements for technology implementation at the enduser site were carried out in Spain, Germany and Austria. Subsequently the developed treatment process was used to be implemented in decentralised treatment plants in European countries like Germany, Poland, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. Main objective of the project was the implementation for humus production out of different organic wastes with advantages of emission reduction and renewable energy generation.

Description of actual services provided by the staff of Müller Abfallprojekte GmbH:

• Investigation and evaluation of wastes (quality & quantity) for the Waste potential analysis and profitability calculations
• Evaluation of waste treatment process
• Engineering of waste treatment technology for anaerobic digestion
• Preparation of documents for installation permit
• Implementation and supervision of the technology on site
• Comissioning of waste treatment technologies
• Assistence and support for the technology operator