STTR Phase I: Cost-effective production of biopolymers for eco-friendly erosion control and soil revegetation with synthetic microbial consortia

这一小型企业技术转让第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发一条基于微生物共培养的新的生物路线，以有效地生产环境友好(生态友好)的生物聚合物混合物，用于植被重建和侵蚀控制应用，潜在市场价值为3.75亿美元。增韧聚合物(粘合剂类材料)被广泛用于稳定松散的土壤/覆盖物，并通过聚集和保水促进植被恢复。该项目将专注于生产一种由微生物多氨基酸和多糖组成的生态友好型生物聚合物混合物，与传统的增粘剂相比，这种聚合物具有更好的性能，提供出色的粘附性和保水性。尽管对更有效的生物增粘剂有很好的潜力和市场需求，但这些微生物生物聚合物从未被研究过用于这一应用，因为目前生产它们的发酵方法不经济。该项目的关键创新在于设计微生物共培养体系，从甜菜糖蜜中原位生产相对昂贵的生物聚合物前体，甜菜糖蜜是一种廉价的可再生原料，从而显著降低了成本。除了生物聚合物的生产，工程共培养原位前体生产(ISPP)的方法有可能被转移到许多其他生物过程，并可能为生产其他生物燃料和化学品提供更有效、更具成本效益的途径。本第一阶段研究项目的目标是：i)实施、实验表征和建模共培养原型，以证明采用该方法生产生物聚合物的技术经济可行性；以及ii)验证这些生物聚合物在植被重建和侵蚀控制应用中的性能。这些目标的完成将展示概念验证，并代表着这项技术商业化的重要技术里程碑。拟议的设计合成微生物联合体的方法与利用单一物种单一培养进行生物加工的传统模式截然不同，并通过原位前体生产和工艺整合提供了大量潜在的成本节约。尽管有这些潜在的好处，但由于所涉及的高技术风险，用于生物加工的合成微生物联合体尚未在商业背景下进行探索。在之前由美国国家科学基金会资助的用于生产纤维素生物燃料的工程联盟的学术研究的基础上，该项目将实施能够通过ISPP生产多氨基酸/多糖的微生物共培养，并对生态相互作用、环境条件和关键性能指标(如效价、产量和生物聚合物组成)之间的相互作用进行初步调查。该项目还将研究多氨基酸/多糖作为生物增粘剂在植被重建和侵蚀控制方面的新应用，这是由于拟议的共培养可能节省成本。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project will be the development of a new biological route, based on microbial co- cultures, for efficient production of an environmentally friendly (eco-friendly) mixture of biopolymers for revegetation and erosion control applications, with a $375 million potential market. Tackifying polymers (adhesive-like materials) are widely used to stabilize loose soils/mulches and promote revegetation via aggregation and water retention. This project will focus on producing an eco-friendly biopolymer mixture of microbial polyamino acids and polysaccharides that has improved properties compared to conventional tackifiers, providing superior adhesion and water retention. Despite promising potential and market demand for more effective bio-based tackifiers, these microbial biopolymers have never been investigated for use in this application, as current fermentation methods for producing them are not economical. The key innovation in this project entails engineering microbial co-cultures to produce relatively expensive biopolymer precursors in-situ from beet molasses, an inexpensive and renewable feedstock, resulting in dramatic cost reductions. Beyond biopolymer production, the proposed approach of engineering co-cultures for in-situ precursor production (ISPP) is potentially transferrable to many other bioprocesses, and could offer more efficient, cost-effective routes for producing other bio-based fuels and chemicals.The objectives of this Phase I research project are to i) implement, experimentally characterize, and model co-culture prototypes to demonstrate technoeconomic feasibility of biopolymer production with this approach, and ii) validate the performance of these biopolymers in revegetation and erosion control applications. Completion of these objectives will demonstrate proof-of-concept, and represent important technical milestones towards commercializing this technology. The proposed approach of engineering synthetic microbial consortia represents a distinct shift from the conventional paradigm of utilizing single-species monocultures for bioprocessing and offers substantial potential cost-savings through in-situ precursor production and process consolidation. Despite these potential benefits, synthetic microbial consortia for bioprocessing have not been explored in a commercial context due to the level of high technical risk entailed. Building on prior NSF-funded academic research in engineering consortia for cellulosic biofuel production, this project will implement microbial co- cultures capable of producing polyamino acids / polysaccharides through ISPP and perform a preliminary investigation of the interplay between ecological interactions, environmental conditions, and key performance metrics (such as titer, yield, and biopolymer composition). This project will also investigate the novel application of polyamino acids / polysaccharides as bio-tackifiers for revegetation and erosion control, enabled by the potential cost-savings of the proposed co-culture.