STTR Phase I: A Gas-Solid Spouted Bed Bioreactor for Solid State Fermentation to Produce Enzymes and Biochemicals from Plant Biomass

该小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段研究项目将开发用于固态发酵（SSF）的气固喷动床生物反应器（SBB），以生产水解酶（例如，淀粉酶、植酸酶、几丁质酶）和生化物质（例如，乳酸）。与深层发酵（SmF）相比，SSF提供更高的生产率和更容易的产品回收，沿着使用许多农产品和副产品（如大米、玉米和麦麸）作为底物的能力。由于它使用植物生物质作为基质，SSF可以成为一个可持续的系统，从自然资源中生产化学品，从而为美国农业提供经济效益，提高国家竞争力。所提出的气固喷动床生物反应器可以克服传统SSF系统所遭受的问题。利用SBB生产酶有可能降低酶的成本75%以上，从而增加其应用。在商业上，这种新的固态发酵（SFF）方法可用于从固体植物生物质经济地生产工业上重要的酶。水解酶如淀粉酶、纤维素酶、植酸酶、几丁质酶等在工业上有着广泛的应用。采用喷动床生物反应器可以更经济地从植物生物质中生产这些酶。淀粉酶和许多其他水解酶用于生物加工，包括玉米湿磨，目前产生超过244亿美元的市场价值。降低这些水解酶的成本对于新兴的生物精炼和生物基工业产品至关重要。气固喷动床生物反应器（SBB）也可用于同步糖化和发酵过程，用于从含有淀粉或纤维素的植物生物质生产生化品。成功开发拟议的SBB和SSF技术将提供可持续的化学生产，保护自然资源和环境，并提高经济机会和生活质量。该项目还将培养急需的生物加工技术领域的高素质人才，并为大学研究成果的及时商业化提供基础设施。在整个商业开发和制造阶段都将创造就业机会。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I research project will develop a gas-solid spouted bed bioreactor (SBB) for solid state fermentations (SSF) to produce hydrolytic enzymes (e.g., amylases, phytase, chitinase) and biochemicals (e.g., lactic acid) from solid starch materials. SSF offers higher production rates and easier product recovery compared to submerged fermentation (SmF), along with the ability to use many agricultural commodities and byproducts, such as rice, corn and wheat bran, as substrates. By virtue of its use of plant biomass as a substrate, SSF can become a sustainable system of chemical production from natural resources, thereby providing economic benefit to US agriculture and increasing national competitiveness. The proposed gas-solid spouted bed bioreactor can overcome problems suffered by conventional SSF systems. Using SBB for enzyme production potentially can reduce enzyme costs by more than 75% and thus increase their applications. Commercially, this new solid state fermentation (SFF) process can be used for economical production of industrially important enzymes from solid plant biomass. Hydrolyases such as amylases, cellulases, phytase, and chitinase have wide applications in industry. These enzymes can be more economically produced from plant biomss in SSF using the spouted bed bioreactor. Amylases and many other hydrolase enzymes are used in bioprocessing, including corn wet-milling, which currently generates more than $24.4 billion market value. Reducing the costs of these hydrolyase enzymes is critical to the emerging biorefinery and bio-based industrial products. The gas-solid spouted bed bioreactor (SBB) also can be used in simultaneous saccharification and fermentation processes for biochemicals production from plant biomass containing starch or cellulose. Successfully developing the proposed SBB and SSF technologies will provide sustainable chemical production, protect natural resources and the environment, and enhance economic opportunity and quality of life. The project also will train high quality personnel in the much needed bioprocessing technology areas, and provide an infrastructure for timely commercialization of university research results. There will be job creation throughout the commercial development and manufacturing phases.