SBIR Phase II: Designer Cellulases for Biomass Conversion

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目将开发新技术，以提高内切葡聚糖酶的高温性能，该酶可用于从木屑和其他生物质中制造纸浆。通过生物质热机械制浆（TMP）生产纸浆造纸是一个高能耗的过程，在高温下进行。研究人员提出了利用定向进化策略和高通量固相酶库筛选来设计一种新的内切葡聚糖酶变体的可行性，该变体具有显著改善的热活性、热稳定性和对抑制剂的抗性。这种增强酶将作为添加剂出售给通过TMP工艺生产纸浆和纸张的制造商。主要的好处包括节约能源和提高纸张质量。该项目的商业应用将在制浆造纸工业。新的筛选技术将用于设计一种增强酶，该酶将在高温条件下修饰纸浆纤维。这种酶添加剂将加速纸浆精炼过程，从而通过减少完成转化所需的电量来降低生产成本。能源投入的任何显著减少对纸浆生产商来说都是非常具有经济吸引力的。如果引入一种有效的酶处理方法可以减少目前能源消耗的10%，那么全球每年的潜在节省总额将接近5亿美元。通过为纸浆生产商提供这些显著的节省，增强酶将能够创造一个新的市场。此外，从本研究中获得的信息可以应用于其他类似的酶，以扩大热稳定性生物催化剂的市场，拓宽对蛋白质结构功能的理解。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop new technology to improve the high-temperature performance of endoglucanase, which can be used to manufacture pulp from wood chips and other biomass. Producing pulp for papermaking via thermomechanical pulping (TMP) of biomass is a highly energy intensive process that is performed at high temperatures. Research is proposed to demonstrate the feasibility of using a directed evolution strategy and high-throughput, solid-phase enzyme library screening to engineer a new endoglucanase variant with significantly improved thermoactivity, thermostability and resistance to inhibitors. This enhanced enzyme will be sold as an additive to manufacturers who produce pulp and paper via the TMP process. Major benefits include energy savings and improvement of paper quality. The commercial application of this project will be on the pulp and paper industry. New screening technology will be used to engineer an enhanced enzyme that will modify pulp fibers under high-temperature conditions. This enzyme additive will accelerate the pulp refining process and thereby lower production costs by reducing the amount of electricity needed to complete the conversion. Any significant reduction in the energy input will be very economically attractive to the pulp producers. If introducing an effective enzyme treatment could eliminate even a modest 10% of the current energy expenditure, the potential worldwide savings could total nearly US$500 million per year. The enhanced enzyme will be able to create a new market by offering these significant savings to the pulp producers. In addition, the information gained from this study could be applied to other similar enzymes to expand the market for thermostable biocatalysts and broaden the understanding of protein structure-function.