SBIR Phase I: Co-Production of Industrial Enzymes and Advanced Lipid Biofuels in Algae

SBIR 第一阶段：在藻类中联合生产工业酶和高级脂质生物燃料

• 批准号: 0839529
• 负责人: Craig Behnke
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: Sapphire Energy, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-01-01 至 2009-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0839529&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Co; Production; Industrial

This Small Business Innovation Phase I project will develop enzyme products from algae along with lipid biofuels. Algae have the potential to provide carbon-neutral, renewable biofuels from advanced lipids. At most, algae will be capable of producing advanced lipids as 30% - 40% of their total biomass, leaving 60% - 70% of the remaining biomass, primarily protein, as waste. As algae growth for biofuel production is scaled up to the levels required to replace significant amounts of transportation fuel, the costs for disposing of this waste biomass will become prohibitive. Therefore, identifying and developing large-scale commercial uses for the remaining biomass is required for commercial viability of large scale advanced lipid biofuel production from algae. In order to fulfill this need, Sapphire Energy will develop a system to co-produce commercially important industrial enzymes and advanced lipids for biofuels in algae. Stephen Mayfield of Sapphire Energy has pioneered the recent development of tools to overexpress proteins in algae. The Phase I experiments examine the feasibility of using these recently developed tools to produce industrial enzymes in algae at levels sufficient to be competitive with existing enzyme production systems while retaining activity and purity. The broader impacts/commercial potential of this project is to make algae more viable as an alternative fuel while also supplying industrial enzymes. Revenue from the sale of industrial enzymes will negate the costs of disposal of excess protein byproduct resulting from lipid production in algae, lowering production costs of advanced lipid biofuels. Development of this technology has wide-ranging societal impacts as it would reduce a key barrier to commercialization of a renewable transportation fuel that 1) can directly substitute for petroleum-based gasoline in current automobile engines, 2) does not compete with or use food crops, and 3) utilizes wastewater and excess CO2. Additionally, the work will allow further development of molecular tools for manipulating algae, increasing the types of products that may be produced in an organism that is rapidly gaining importance for the production of carbon-neutral, renewable products.

这个小企业创新第一阶段项目将开发来自藻类的酶产品以及脂质生物燃料。藻类有潜力利用先进的脂质提供碳中性、可再生的生物燃料。藻类最多能够生产占其总生物量 30% - 40% 的高级脂质，而剩余生物量（主要是蛋白质）的 60% - 70% 作为废物。随着用于生物燃料生产的藻类生长规模扩大到替代大量运输燃料所需的水平，处理这些废弃生物质的成本将变得令人望而却步。因此，要实现利用藻类大规模生产先进脂质生物燃料的商业可行性，需要确定和开发剩余生物质的大规模商业用途。为了满足这一需求，Sapphire Energy 将开发一种系统，以在藻类中共同生产商业上重要的工业酶和用于生物燃料的先进脂质。 Sapphire Energy 的 Stephen Mayfield 最近率先开发了在藻类中过度表达蛋白质的工具。第一阶段实验检验了使用这些最近开发的工具在藻类中生产工业酶的可行性，其水平足以与现有酶生产系统竞争，同时保留活性和纯度。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使藻类作为替代燃料更可行，同时还提供工业酶。工业酶的销售收入将抵消藻类脂质生产产生的过量蛋白质副产品的处理成本，从而降低先进脂质生物燃料的生产成本。这项技术的发展具有广泛的社会影响，因为它将减少可再生运输燃料商业化的一个关键障碍，该燃料：1）可以直接替代当前汽车发动机中的石油基汽油，2）不与粮食作物竞争或使用粮食作物，3）利用废水和过量的二氧化碳。此外，这项工作还将进一步开发用于操纵藻类的分子工具，增加生物体中可能生产的产品类型，而这种生物体对于碳中性、可再生产品的生产迅速变得越来越重要。