SBIR Phase I: Novel enzymes for producing homogeneous preparations of individual, monounsaturated industrial fatty acids

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响和商业潜力是开发一种新的可扩展的制造能力，用于生产用于表面活性剂、润滑剂和聚合物的生物基化学品。该制造平台将利用生物衍生的糖碳源，并通过微生物发酵将这种碳转化为更高价值的产品。这个新制造平台的核心是一种重新设计的微生物，它将提供含有单碳碳双键的特定碳链长度的单个脂肪酸的均匀制剂。这与目前的油类化合物形成了对比，油类化合物是由不同碳链长度的脂肪酸组成的复杂混合物，碳链长度在12到18个碳原子之间，可能含有0-3个碳-碳双键。在这些油脂化学物质中发生的复杂混合物限制了从油脂中产生的产品类型，或者增加了制造均质产品的相当大的分离成本。该项目将利用前所未有的技术能力，生产单一不饱和脂肪酸的均质制剂，这是生产许多影响表面活性剂、润滑剂和聚合物市场的化学品的平台原料，目前每年价值400亿美元，预计在未来5年内将增长到每年1500亿美元。SBIR一期项目提出开发新的转化技术，该技术基于对终止II型脂肪酸合成酶（酰基- acp硫酯酶）延伸周期的生物催化机制的发现和基本理解。该项目将利用该技术生产单不饱和脂肪酸7-十四烯酸的近均相制剂（~60%），并建议优化该系统，使该脂肪酸的均相制剂达到80%以上。这种单不饱和脂肪酸目前在市场上价格不合理。7-十四烯酸的空前可用性使其成为后续化学转化为许多生物可再生化学物质的生化平台，这些化学物质在表面活性剂、润滑剂和聚合物中都有应用。从长远来看，该平台技术可以扩展到生产不同链长的单不饱和脂肪酸的替代均质制剂，这些单不饱和脂肪酸在分子中不同但确定的位置具有碳-碳双键。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the development of a new scalable manufacturing capability for producing bio-based chemicals for surfactants, lubricants, and polymers. This manufacturing platform will utilize biologically derived sugar carbon-source and transform this carbon to higher value products via microbial fermentation. At the core of this new manufacturing platform is a re-designed microorganism that will deliver homogeneous preparations of individual fatty acids of defined carbon-chain length that contain a single carbon-carbon double bond. This contrasts with current sources of oleochemicals, which are complex mixtures of fatty acids of different carbon chain lengths ranging between 12 and 18 carbon atoms, and may contain 0-3 carbon-carbon double bonds. The complex mixtures that occur in these oleochemicals limit the types of products that can be generated from fats and oils, or adds considerable separations cost to the manufacture of homogeneous products. The project will take advantage of unprecedented technological capability to produce homogeneous preparations of a single monounsaturated fatty acid, which is a platform feedstock for producing many chemicals that impact surfactant, lubricant, and polymer markets, currently valued at $40B per annum, and predicted to grow to $150B per annum in the next 5-years. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop new transformational technology that is based on the discovery and fundamental understanding of the biocatalytic mechanism that terminates the elongation cycle of Type II fatty acid synthase, the enzyme acyl-ACP thioesterase. The project will harness this technology for the production of near homogeneous preparations (~60%) of the monounsaturated fatty acid, 7-tetradecenoic acid, and proposes to optimize the system to produce over 80% homogeneous preparations of this fatty acid. This monounsaturated fatty acid is not currently available in the marketplace at a reasonable cost. The unprecedented availability of 7-tetradecenoic acid makes it a platform biochemical for subsequent chemical conversion to numerous biorenewable chemicals that have applications in surfactants, lubricants, and polymers. In the long-term, this platform technology can be expanded to produce alternative homogeneous preparations of monounsaturated fatty acids of different chain lengths, with carbon-carbon double bonds at different but defined places in the molecule.