STTR Phase I: An Advanced Biomanufacturing Platform Focused on Producing Sustainable Bio-based Commercial Chemicals

这个小型企业技术转移（STTR）第一阶段项目建议开发并商业化一种新的可扩展制造能力，该能力将生产用于表面活性剂、润滑剂和聚合物的生物基化学品。这个新制造平台的核心是一种重新设计的微生物，它包含了一种新的酶，可以确定脂肪酸的omega-末端的化学性质。美国国家科学基金会工程研究中心（ERC） CBiRC对基因组进行了计算勘探，发现了这些酶，并且CBiRC开发了系统来准确识别它们在确定脂肪酸ω -末端时的生物催化能力。CBiRC团队将实施这些系统，并确定新的优质生物催化剂。该公司将通过选择优化的生物催化剂来利用这些发现，并将其整合到一个微生物平台中，用于可扩展的生物基生产欧米茄功能化脂肪酸化学品。这些功能化脂肪酸将在表面活性剂、润滑剂和聚合物等领域显示出更好的性能特征，这些领域的市场价值每年超过400亿美元。如果成功，该项目将产生更广泛的影响/商业潜力，将成为生产目前从石油碳中提取的生物基化学品的新制造平台。这个提议的项目有可能影响表面活性剂、润滑剂和聚合物工业的碳足迹和环境足迹。制造平台将利用生物碳源（来自植物的糖），并通过新的微生物发酵过程，将碳生物转化为更高价值的产品。这种转变在公司的地理和智力起步的背景下具有重要意义。首先，该公司位于中西部的爱荷华州，该州是美国生物基碳固定产业（即农业）的中心；该技术有可能增加初级农业产出的价值，从而支持农村发展。其次，公司设想在ERC-Industry collaboration（即中国保监会创新生态系统）的背景下建立行业合作伙伴关系，将价值链上的多家公司纳入其中，从农产品生产商到化工公司，这些公司正在寻求从使用不可再生的石油衍生碳转变为使用可再生碳源。因此，该技术有潜力成为促进可持续制造基地的变革力量。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project proposes to develop and commercialize a new scalable manufacturing capability that will produce bio-based chemicals for surfactants, lubricants, and polymers. At the core of this new manufacturing platform is a re-designed microorganism that incorporates novel enzymes that determine the chemical nature of the omega-end of fatty acids. Computational prospecting of genomes by NSF's Engineering Research Center (ERC), CBiRC, has led to the discovery of these enzymes, and CBiRC has developed systems to accurately identify their biocatalytic capabilities in determining the omega-end of fatty acids. The CBiRC team will implement these systems and identify new superior biocatalysts. The company will utilize these discoveries by selecting optimized biocatalysts, and integrate them into a microbial platform for the scalable bio-based manufacture of omega-functionalized fatty acid chemicals. These functionalized fatty acids will display improved performance characteristics in applications such as surfactants, lubricants, and polymers, which are markets that are valued at more than $40B per annum. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project, if successful, will be a new manufacturing platform for producing bio-based chemicals that are currently derived from petroleum-carbon. This proposed project has the potential of impacting the carbon and environmental footprints of the surfactant, lubricant, and polymer industries. The manufacturing platform will utilize biological carbon sources (sugars derived from plants), and, via novel microbial fermentation processes, will biologically transform the carbon to higher value products. This transformation is of significance in the context of company's geographic and intellectual inception. First, the company is based in a Midwestern State (Iowa), which is at the epicenter of this country's bio-based carbon-fixing industry (i.e., agriculture); the technology has the potential to add value to primary agricultural outputs, and therefore support rural development. Second, the company envisions forming industry partnerships in the context of the ERC-Industry collaboration (i.e., CBiRC's Innovation Ecosystem) that incorporates multiple companies along the value chain from agricultural commodity producers to chemical companies that are seeking to change from using non-renewable petroleum-derived carbon to renewable carbon-sources. Therefore, the technology has the potential of being a transformative force in contributing to a sustainable manufacturing base.