SBIR Phase I: Microbial Synthesis of Propylene

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在设计一种生物催化剂，用于将原料有效地转化为线性挥发性烯烃，即丙烯。从经济、环境和社会的角度来看，目前用化石燃料生产丙烯是不可持续的。正在开发的基于生物质的技术也受到化学处理的低特异性或产品对微生物的毒性的限制。为了克服这些挑战，将利用一种新的途径将原料直接发酵成丙烯。丙烯的功能属性，如不溶于水溶液和高蒸气压，使其从微生物生产过程中消除了与产品毒性和回收相关的问题。目前的提案概述了通过将代谢物通量转向丙烯来优化生物催化剂效率的计划。这将通过解除相关代谢途径的管制，消除已知的瓶颈来实现。该项目的成果将是一种“快速上市”的生物催化剂，它将原料转化为丙烯，丙烯是石化工业的主要组成部分。如果成功，该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是开发一种微生物生产重要化学中间体丙烯的技术，该技术可再生和可持续的原料在燃料和产品中有广泛的应用。丙烯是石化行业使用的最大的烯烃之一，市场价值超过1000亿美元。预计到2015年，需求将超过丙烯的生产能力。因此，拟议项目的成功将导致生物炼制行业的及时发展，以廉价和可再生的原料生产丙烯。此外，从该项目中获得的知识将用于优化生产其他烯烃的生物催化剂，从而开辟新的市场机会。该工艺技术的成功将通过减少对化石燃料的依赖，为美国的经济和能源安全做出贡献。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to engineer a biocatalyst for efficient transformation of feedstocks into a linear, volatile olefin, namely propylene. Current production of propylene from fossil fuels is unsustainable from economical, environmental, and social perspective. The biomass-based technologies being developed also are limited by either the low specificity of chemical processing or product toxicity to microorganisms. To overcome these challenges, a novel pathway for direct fermentation of feedstocks into propylene will be utilized. The functional attributes of propylene, such as insolubility in aqueous solutions and high vapor pressure, make their production process from microbial organisms facile by eliminating issues associated with product toxicity and recovery. The current proposal outlines plans to optimize biocatalyst efficiency by redirecting metabolite fluxes towards propylene. This will be achieved by deregulation of the relevant metabolic pathways with elimination of the known bottlenecks. The outcome of this project will be a "fast-to-market" biocatalyst that transforms feedstocks into propylene, a primary building block for petrochemical industries.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project, if successful, will be the development of a technology for microbial production of an important chemical intermediate, propylene, from renewable and sustainable feedstocks with broad applications in fuels and products. Propylene is one of the largest olefin used by petrochemical industries with a market value exceeding $100 billion. It is expected that by 2015, demand will outpace the propylene production capacity. Success of the proposed project would, therefore, lead to a timely development of a biorefinery industry for production of propylene from cheap and renewable feedstocks. Moreover, the knowledge gained from this project will be leveraged in optimization of biocatalysts for production of other olefins, thereby opening new market opportunity. Success of the proposed process technology will contribute to the economic and energy security of the U.S. by reducing the dependence on fossil fuels.