Developing Mixed Microbial Populations for Industrial Sidestream Conversion into Textile Dyes and Wider Bio-Products

使用酵母/细菌和精密发酵过程进行生物制造是一种强有力的方法，可以取代目前污染和破坏性极高的制造过程，如化石燃料提取、不可降解塑料生产和集约化畜牧业。但这些有害的行业背后有数十年的基础设施、规模经济和补贴，这使得生物制造过程的商业优化，以实现现有市场上的价格平等，对所有行业的生物制造企业来说都是一个巨大的挑战。实现商业生存的一种方式是使用更便宜的原材料进入精密发酵过程。目前，大多数生物制造厂使用初糖作为原料。这些糖可以占到生物制造总成本的近50%，它们还会与其他市场产生竞争，在这些市场中，这些糖可以得到更好的利用，例如直接进入现有的食品制造链。在这个项目中，进化者将使用其专有的微生物优化技术平台来开发全新的微生物系统，该系统可以比任何现有的微生物解决方案更有效地利用工业侧流作为发酵原料。由于侧流通常复杂、不纯和不稳定，因此捕获作为生物制造原料具有挑战性，使可靠的发酵变得困难。但每年有超过5亿吨的垃圾被填埋或焚烧(估计经济损失为7200亿美元)。有了进化者的新微生物开发，我们将在全球范围内为生物制造提供侧流配价，将我们的经济推向一场亟需的生物工业革命。为了首先展示我们新微生物的力量，我们与辉瑞期货公司合作。Faber正在开发他们的“天蓝色计划”，以生产细菌纺织品染料，并分散高质量、可持续服装的生产。通过允许他们使用目前浪费或低价的副流作为染料生产的原材料，该项目将推动Faber Futures的面料在2023年末投放市场，并完成他们的使命，即建立从端到端完全**符合道德、公平和可持续**的纺织品生物制造供应链。

Biomanufacturing using yeast/bacteria and precision fermentation processes is a powerful approach that can displace manufacturing processes that are currently extremely polluting and destructive such as fossil fuel extraction, non-degradable plastic production and intensive animal agriculture. But these harmful industries have decades of infrastructure, economies-of-scale and subsidisation behind them, making the commercial optimisation of biomanufacturing processes to achieve price parity on existing markets a huge challenge for biomanufacturers across all sectors.One way that commercial viability can be achieved is through using cheaper raw materials to feed into precision fermentation processes. Currently, the majority of biomanufacturers use virgin sugars as their feedstocks. These can make up almost 50% of overall biomanufacturing cost, and they also create competition with other markets where these sugars could arguably be better used, for example going directly into existing food manufacturing chains. In this project, Evolutor will use its proprietary microbe optimisation technology platform to develop entirely new microbial systems that can effectively utilise industrial side streams as fermentation feedstocks better than any existing microbial solutions.Side streams are challenging to capture as biomanufacturing feedstocks as they are generally complex, impure and inconsistent, making reliable fermentation difficult. But over 500M tonnes of waste goes to landfill or is incinerated every year (an estimated economic loss of $720B). With Evolutor's new microbe developments, we will unlock side stream valorisation for biomanufacturing on a global scale, pushing our economies closer to a much needed Bio-Industrial Revolution.To demonstrate the power of our new microbes in the first instance, we are partnering with Faber Futures. Faber are developing their "Project Coelicolor" to produce bacterial textile dyes and decentralise the production of high-quality, sustainable garments. By allowing them to use currently wasted or under-valorised side streams as raw materials for this dye production, this project will push Faber Futures' fabrics to market in late 2023 and fulfil their mission of building textile biomanufacturing supply chains that are entirely **ethical, equitable and sustainable** from end-to-end.