FMSG:ECO: CAS:From Carbon Dioxide to Future Bioplastic Manufacturing for Environmental Sustainability

用廉价、可再生的天然材料取代石油产品对可持续发展至关重要，并将对聚合物行业和环境产生重大影响。石油基塑料材料已经超过了大多数其他人造材料，成为现代生活中的必备材料。据估计，从1950年到2015年制造的塑料树脂和纤维总量为78亿吨，其中一半是在过去几十年中生产的。生物降解塑料长期以来一直被视为石化塑料的替代品，以促进环境的可持续性。尽管生物塑料提供了实质性的环境效益，但目前的制造成本相对较高。在这个未来制造种子资助（FMSG）项目中，项目团队将开发一种新的制造工艺，将二氧化碳转化为生物塑料（聚羟基烷酸酯，PHA），并设计生物塑料复合材料，以实现未来的制造。二氧化碳将通过一种称为电催化的过程转化为可食用的微生物营养素，这些营养素将进一步被细菌用来生产PHA。微生物衍生的PHA将用于制造生物塑料复合材料。该项目将吸引本科生和研究生，利用大学培训中心教育广大受众，并在非洲建立全球影响力。该项目旨在开发一种新的制造工艺，将二氧化碳转化为生物塑料（聚羟基烷酸酯，PHA），并设计生物塑料复合材料，以获得更广泛的应用。传统的工业发酵使用糖基原料具有固有的碳效率限制。在碳转化过程中，有限的还原当量供应不可避免地导致碳排放，降低了异养微生物的碳效率。拟议的研究将创造一种具有成本效益的工业质量生物塑料制造。该研究将建立一个高效、经济的电化学-生物转化混合系统。将创建和优化用于将CO2转化为乙酸盐、乙醇和丙酸盐的电解支持的催化途径。该团队将两步串联工艺与最先进的Cu催化剂相结合，以实现高反应速率下的高选择性乙酸/乙醇生产。假单胞菌菌株将被工程化以高效地将C2和C3中间体转化为PHA。将进行技术经济分析（TEA）和生命周期分析（LCA），以评估新创建的PHA复合材料的经济和环境影响。从这一过程中获得的基础知识将为当前的制造业和气候缓解带来变革性的变化。该项目由生物科学理事会分子和细胞生物科学部，工程理事会化学，生物工程，环境和运输系统部，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Replacing petroleum-based products with inexpensive, renewable, natural materials is essential for sustainable development and will significantly impact the polymer industry and the environment. Petroleum-based plastic materials have exceeded most other man-made materials and are present as must-have materials in modern life. It is estimated that the total amount of plastic resins and fibers manufactured from 1950 through 2015 is 7800 million tons, half of which was produced in the past decades. Biodegradable plastics have been long sought-after as alternatives to petrochemical plastics to promote environmental sustainability. Even though bioplastics provide substantive environmental benefits, the current manufacturing cost is relatively high. In this Future Manufacturing Seed Grant (FMSG) project, the project team will develop a new manufacturing process to convert CO2 to bioplastics (polyhydroxyalkanoates, PHA) and design bioplastics composite to enable future manufacturing. CO2 will be converted to edible microbial nutrients via a process known as electrocatalysis, and the nutrients will further be used by bacteria to produce PHA. Microbe-derived PHA will be used to make bioplastic composites. The project will engage undergraduate and graduate students, utilize a university training center to educate broad audiences, and build global impacts in Africa.The project aims to develop a new manufacturing process to convert CO2 to bioplastics (polyhydroxyalkanoates, PHA) and design bioplastics composite for broader applications. Traditional industrial fermentation has an inherent carbon efficiency limitation using sugar-based feedstock. The limited reducing equivalent supply during carbon conversion inevitably leads to carbon emission and lowers carbon efficiency in heterotrophic microorganisms. The proposed research will create a cost-effective manufacturing of industrial quality bioplastics. The research will establish an electrochemistry-bioconversion hybrid system for efficient and cost-effective PHA production. Electrolysis-supported catalytic pathways for CO2 conversion to acetate, ethanol, and propionate will be created and optimized. The team will integrate a two-step tandem process with a state-of-the-art Cu catalyst to achieve a highly selective acetate/ethanol production at high reaction rates. Pseudomonas strains will be engineered to convert C2 and C3 intermediates to PHA with a high efficiency. Techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA) will be measured to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of new created PHA composites. The fundamental knowledge gained from this process will bring transformative changes to the current manufacturing and climate mitigation.This project is jointly funded by the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences in the Directorate for Biological Sciences, the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems in the Directorate for Engineering, and the Division of Chemistry in the Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.