SBIR Phase I: Lipogenic Strains for Production of Novel Plastic Monomers

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在将现代生物工程能力应用于开发石油衍生塑料的可行替代品。 最近的文献报道已经确定了一类新的基于单体α-羟基脂肪酸（α-HFA）的生物塑料。 除了各种其他有趣的应用之外，α-HFA单体可以容易地聚合成独特的生物聚酯塑料家族，其显示出与聚乙烯相似的特性，从而克服了其他生物塑料的关键限制。 为了使HFAs成为目前生物塑料的可行替代品，必须开发基于低成本可再生原料的可扩展生产工艺。 该SBIR项目将根据我们最近在《美国化学学会杂志》上报道的工作，开发一种新的低成本生物发酵工艺，用于大规模生产HFAs。 特别地，我们的工作代表了酵母菌株（在这种情况下，热带假丝酵母）的基因工程的第一次证明，以允许天然存在的脂肪酸油选择性和有效的酶促转化为它们相应的α-HFA。 该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将有助于提高生物塑料的可用性，以实现更广泛的商业应用。 目前的生物塑料的市场采用受到限制，这是由于它们的高生产成本和它们不期望的功能性质，例如相对于石油塑料的脆性、高渗透性、刚性和低熔点。 2010年美国生物塑料市场规模约为3.5亿美元，目前正以每年17%的速度增长。 迄今为止，生物塑料仅限于利基市场，例如一次性可生物降解的消费品，其中成本和不期望的功能特性可以通过消费者对可生物降解材料的需求来抵消。 这些应用领域的一些例子包括餐饮用品（陶器，餐具，碗等）。和容器（瓶、杯、盘等）特别是在健康食品商店和餐馆中。 具有改进特性的新型生物塑料（如HFAs）可能会在1060亿美元/年的聚乙烯市场中实现更多应用。 我们每天依赖的大多数塑料组件都是由不可生物降解的聚乙烯组成的，其中许多组件可以从可持续，可再生和低成本的资源/原料中受益。 此外，可扩展的塑料生物生产的发展有助于减少对石油的依赖，并为下一代材料的生产提供灵活的平台。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is designed to apply modern bioengineering capabilities to the development of viable alternatives to petroleum-derived plastics. Recent literature reports have identified a novel class of bioplastics based on the monomer, ù-hydroxyfatty acids (ù-HFAs). In addition to a variety of other interesting applications, the ù-HFA monomer can be readily polymerized into a unique family of biopolyester plastics that display properties similar to polyethylene, thus overcoming a key limitation found with other bioplastics. In order for ù-HFAs to become a viable alternative to current bioplastics, a scalable production process based on low-cost renewable feedstocks must be developed. THis SBIR project will develop a novel low-cost biological fermentation process for the large-scale production of ù-HFAs based on work we recently reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. In particular, our work represented the first demonstration of the genetic engineering of a yeast strain (in this case, Candida tropicalis) to allow for the selective and efficient enzymatic conversion of naturally-occurring fatty acid oils to their corresponding ù-HFAs. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will help to improve availability of bioplastics for broader commercial applications. Market adoption of current bioplastics has been limited due to their high production costs and their undesirable functional properties such as brittleness, high permeability, rigidity and low melting points relative to petroleum plastics. The U.S. market size for bioplastics in 2010 was approximately $350M and is currently growing at 17% per year. To date, bioplastics have been limited to niche markets such as disposable biodegradable consumer items where cost and undesirable functional properties can be offset by consumer demand for a biodegradable material. A few examples of these application areas include catering items (crockery, cutlery, bowls, etc.) and containers (bottles, cups, trays, etc.) particularly in health food stores and restaurants. New bioplastics such as ù-HFAs with improved characteristics may enable additional applications within the $106B/yr polyethylene market. The majority of plastic components we depend upon every day are comprised of non-biodegradable polyethylene, and many could benefit from being derived from sustainable, renewable and lower cost resources/feedstocks. Further, development of scalable biological production of plastics serves to reduce petroleum dependence as well as providing a flexible platform for production of next-generation materials.