SBIR Phase I: Real-Time, On-Line, Continuous Monitoring of Carbohydrate Mixtures

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目计划开发一种基于光电子学和生物传感器技术的多功能、灵敏和廉价的碳水化合物监测系统。该平台允许使用小型一次性光纤生物传感器连续测量简单碳水化合物，其精度可与传统仪器相媲美。这项技术提供了在很大的线性范围内检测碳水化合物的能力，并以简单、自动化和在线的方式进行检测。许多不同的生物过程，包括生产生物燃料、氨基酸和药品的发酵，都是基于微生物将糖转化为高价值产品。生物质转化过程中碳水化合物浓度的实时监测将在过程控制方面提供巨大的优势，从而在降低生产成本和降低环境影响的同时提高产量。目前还没有可用于连续、定量监测特定糖类的技术，将开发的传感器系统将满足这一需求。该项目围绕四个具体目标进行设计，这些目标将导致开发葡萄糖和木糖传感器，一种同时监测这两种糖浓度的方法，以及对这些传感器的灭菌方法进行比较。如果成功，该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是碳水化合物传感器的开发，以实现生物过程的监测、控制和优化。这些特征中的每一个都可以提高生物过程的效率。例如，监控可以检测到批处理过程何时没有按照规范执行，而控制和优化则允许高效运行。目前离线测量糖分浓度的方法导致过程控制不佳、资本设备使用效率低下，以及由于过度补偿而浪费昂贵的化学品和能源。例如，对玉米秸秆生物质加工厂的碳水化合物进行更有效的监测，每年保守估计可节省69万美元。对“生物经济”的预测是，除了药品以外，越来越多的化学品将由不同的生物质原料以生物方式生产。有了这种传感器提供的持续在线监测，这些生物过程的运行将在环境和经济上更加可持续。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to develop a versatile, sensitive, and inexpensive carbohydrate monitoring system based on optoelectronics and biosensor technologies. The platform allows continuous measurement of simple carbohydrates using small, disposable fiber-optic biosensors with accuracy comparable to conventional instrumentation. This technology offers the ability to both detect carbohydrates over a large linear range and do it in a simple, automated, and online fashion. Many different bioprocesses, including fermentations to produce biofuels, amino acids, and pharmaceuticals, are based on microbial conversions of sugars to high-value products. Real-time monitoring of carbohydrate concentration during the biomass conversion would provide a great advantage in process control, leading to increased yields at decreased production costs and a lower environmental impact. No current technology is available for continuous, quantitative monitoring of specific sugars, and the sensor system to be developed will address this need. The project is designed around four specific aims that will result in the development of sensors for glucose and xylose, a method for monitoring both sugar concentrations simultaneously, and comparison of methods to sterilize these sensors. The outcome will be demonstration of a sensor for continuously monitoring glucose and xylose in bioprocesses.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project, if successful, is the development of carbohydrate sensors to enable bioprocess monitoring, control, and optimization. Each of those characteristics can increase the efficiency of a bioprocess. For example, monitoring can detect when a batch process is not performing to specification, and control and optimization allow efficient operation. Current off-line methods to measure sugar concentrations lead to poor process control, inefficient use of capital equipment, and the wasting of expensive chemicals and energy due to over-compensation. For example, more effective monitoring of carbohydrates for a corn stover biomass processing plant could result in a conservative estimated annual savings of $690,000/year. Projections of the "bio-based economy" are for an increasing volume of chemicals, beyond pharmaceuticals, to be produced biologically from different biomass feedstocks. Operation of those bioprocesses would be more environmentally and economically sustainable with the continuous, on-line monitoring provided by this sensor.