Fermentation optimisation for a palm oil alternative

棕榈油替代品的发酵优化

• 批准号: 10077804
• 金额: $ 59.78万
• 依托单位: SUN BEAR BIOWORKS LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10077804
• 关键词: Fermentation; optimisation; palm; oil; alternative

Palm oil is everywhere. It is in food, cosmetics and biofuels. It is in 50% of our supermarket products. Palm oil is unique in the vegetable oil market; it melts in your mouth, is great for cooking and is a high-yielding crop. However, palm oil is one of the biggest carbon emitters due to loss of tropical rainforest and peatland to make way for plantations - it contributes over 500 million tonnes of CO2e, over 1% global emissions, from 19 million hectares of tropical land. It has caused significant habitat loss, including for the Orangutan and Sun Bear, and all too often smallholder farmers do not receive a fair price for their produce.The UK Government has committed to reaching Net Zero by 2050; 20% of UK emissions stem from agriculture and the food supply chain. These emissions must be tackled if we are to reach net zero.Sun Bear Bioworks is a UK-based company using synthetic biology and precision fermentation to make an alternative to palm oil. We are optimising a naturally oil-producing yeast strain to produce our oil from food waste quickly and efficiently. Our process saves 4kg CO2 and 2000m2 of land for every kg of palm oil - a saving in both cases of 80%. We are working with the LeoRiosLab at University College London and the RLALab at Imperial College London on this project to radically optimise our strains and fermentation process to produce fats quickly and efficiently. Feedstock costs are prohibitively expensive for scaling fermentation processes in fats - maximising lipid productivity is vital if we are to have the greatest environmental impact. This project will enable a sustainable palm oil alternative to be produced domestically at scale in the UK, creating jobs in biotechnology and food production and reversing a substantial trade deficit.This builds on the work we carried out as part of our Fast Start award, project 10045430 "Alternative feedstock for precision fermentation of oil", which has allowed us to develop our yeast modification capabilities and work with non-sugar feedstocks.

棕榈油无处不在。它存在于食品、化妆品和生物燃料中。我们超市 50% 的产品都含有这种成分。棕榈油在植物油市场上独树一帜；它入口即化，非常适合烹饪，而且是一种高产作物。然而，由于热带雨林和泥炭地为种植园让路而消失，棕榈油成为最大的碳排放源之一 - 它从 1900 万公顷的热带土地中排放了超过 5 亿吨二氧化碳当量，占全球排放量的 1% 以上。它造成了严重的栖息地丧失，包括猩猩和马来熊的栖息地的丧失，而且小农的产品常常得不到公平的价格。英国政府承诺到 2050 年实现净零排放；英国 20% 的排放量来自农业和食品供应链。如果我们要实现净零排放，就必须解决这些排放问题。Sun Bear Bioworks 是一家总部位于英国的公司，利用合成生物学和精密发酵来制造棕榈油的替代品。我们正在优化一种天然产油酵母菌株，以快速有效地从食物垃圾中生产油。我们的工艺每生产一公斤棕榈油可减少 4 公斤二氧化碳和 2000 平方米土地 - 两种情况下均节省 80%。我们正在与伦敦大学学院的 LeoRiosLab 和伦敦帝国理工学院的 RLALab 合作开展这个项目，从根本上优化我们的菌株和发酵过程，以快速高效地生产脂肪。对于扩大脂肪发酵过程来说，原料成本极其昂贵 - 如果我们想要对环境产生最大的影响，那么最大化脂质生产率至关重要。该项目将使英国能够在国内大规模生产可持续的棕榈油替代品，从而在生物技术和食品生产领域创造就业机会，并扭转巨额贸易逆差。该项目建立在我们作为快速启动奖项目10045430“油精密发酵的替代原料”的一部分所开展的工作的基础上，该项目使我们能够发展酵母改性能力并使用非糖原料。