SBIR Phase I: Novel enzymes for producing homogeneous preparations of individual, monounsaturated industrial fatty acids

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种新的可扩展的制造能力，用于生产表面活性剂，润滑剂和聚合物的生物基化学品。 该生产平台将利用生物来源的糖碳源，并通过微生物发酵将这些碳转化为更高价值的产品。 这个新制造平台的核心是一种重新设计的微生物，它将提供含有单个碳-碳双键的特定碳链长度的单个脂肪酸的均匀制剂。这与目前的油脂化学品来源形成对比，油脂化学品是具有12至18个碳原子的不同碳链长度的脂肪酸的复杂混合物，并且可能含有0-3个碳-碳双键。 这些油脂化学品中存在的复杂混合物限制了可由脂肪和油产生的产品类型，或者给均质产品的制造增加了相当大的分离成本。该项目将利用前所未有的技术能力生产单一单不饱和脂肪酸的均质制剂，这是生产影响表面活性剂，润滑剂和聚合物市场的许多化学品的平台原料，目前每年价值400亿美元，预计在未来5年内将增长到每年1500亿美元。该SBIR第一阶段项目提出开发新的转化技术，该技术基于对终止II型脂肪酸合酶（酰基-ACP硫酯酶）延长周期的生物催化机制的发现和基本理解。 该项目将利用该技术生产单不饱和脂肪酸7-十四烯酸的近均质制剂（约60%），并建议优化该系统，以生产80%以上的均质制剂。 这种单不饱和脂肪酸目前在市场上不能以合理的价格获得。 7-十四碳烯酸的前所未有的可用性使其成为后续化学转化为许多生物可再生化学品的平台生物化学品，这些化学品在表面活性剂，润滑剂和聚合物中具有应用。从长远来看，这种平台技术可以扩展到生产不同链长的单不饱和脂肪酸的替代均匀制剂，其中碳-碳双键位于分子中不同但确定的位置。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the development of a new scalable manufacturing capability for producing bio-based chemicals for surfactants, lubricants, and polymers. This manufacturing platform will utilize biologically derived sugar carbon-source and transform this carbon to higher value products via microbial fermentation. At the core of this new manufacturing platform is a re-designed microorganism that will deliver homogeneous preparations of individual fatty acids of defined carbon-chain length that contain a single carbon-carbon double bond. This contrasts with current sources of oleochemicals, which are complex mixtures of fatty acids of different carbon chain lengths ranging between 12 and 18 carbon atoms, and may contain 0-3 carbon-carbon double bonds. The complex mixtures that occur in these oleochemicals limit the types of products that can be generated from fats and oils, or adds considerable separations cost to the manufacture of homogeneous products. The project will take advantage of unprecedented technological capability to produce homogeneous preparations of a single monounsaturated fatty acid, which is a platform feedstock for producing many chemicals that impact surfactant, lubricant, and polymer markets, currently valued at $40B per annum, and predicted to grow to $150B per annum in the next 5-years. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop new transformational technology that is based on the discovery and fundamental understanding of the biocatalytic mechanism that terminates the elongation cycle of Type II fatty acid synthase, the enzyme acyl-ACP thioesterase. The project will harness this technology for the production of near homogeneous preparations (~60%) of the monounsaturated fatty acid, 7-tetradecenoic acid, and proposes to optimize the system to produce over 80% homogeneous preparations of this fatty acid. This monounsaturated fatty acid is not currently available in the marketplace at a reasonable cost. The unprecedented availability of 7-tetradecenoic acid makes it a platform biochemical for subsequent chemical conversion to numerous biorenewable chemicals that have applications in surfactants, lubricants, and polymers. In the long-term, this platform technology can be expanded to produce alternative homogeneous preparations of monounsaturated fatty acids of different chain lengths, with carbon-carbon double bonds at different but defined places in the molecule.