SBIR Phase II: Efficient Production of a High Performance and Eco-Friendly Superabsorbent Microbial Biopolymer for Hygiene Applications

这项小企业创新研究第二阶段项目的广泛影响/商业潜力包括巨大的商业潜力、社会效益和科学进步。传统的高吸水性聚合物（SAP）是基于从石油原料中提取的聚丙烯酸酯或聚丙烯酰胺。它们被广泛用于卫生产品的吸收核心，一次性尿布约占全球SAP市场（60亿美元）的85%。消费者和供应链对更天然、可持续材料和产品的需求日益增长，推动了环保/天然标签吸收性卫生产品（AHP）的发展。环保纸尿裤产品目前约占全球市场的3%，正以10-15%的复合年增长率（CAGR）强劲增长。该项目将导致低成本高性能生物基SAP的商业化，作为一种更可持续、更环保的石油基SAP替代品，提供显著的环境效益。该项目还可以通过创造对废甘油等生物原料的新需求，对国内农业产生积极的经济影响。最后，该项目通过开发一种基于微生物共培养的新生物工艺，推动了科学和技术的发展，该工艺可以扩展为生产其他生物燃料和化学品的更有效、更经济的途径。该二期研究项目的目标是开发一种新的生物途径，基于微生物共培养，以经济有效地生产-聚谷氨酸（PGA），并将用于AHP应用的交联PGA SAP商业化。在该项目的第一阶段，开发了一种微生物共培养工艺，通过原位前体生产（ISPP）从低成本的生物原料高效生产PGA。材料。在第一阶段有希望的结果的基础上，进一步的研发将致力于在第二阶段结束时达到中试规模生产。目标1：菌株工程和生物工艺优化，以开发具有商业可行性性能指标的ISPP发酵工艺。目的2：优化下游纯化，SAP交联和整理，以生产高性能成品PGA SAP产品。目标3：中试规模流程演示，为大规模客户/合作伙伴试验生产商业数量的PGA SAP。这一研发计划将带来变革性的技术成果。提出的基于微生物共培养的工艺代表了从利用单一物种单一培养进行生物处理的传统范式的明显转变，并提供了大量的成本节约。在此项目中开发的工程和工艺开发策略将广泛应用于其他共培养生物处理应用。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project includes tremendous commercial potential, societal benefits, and scientific advances. Conventional superabsorbent polymers (SAP) are based on polyacrylates or polyacrylamides derived from petroleum feedstock. They are widely used in the absorbent cores of hygiene products, with disposable diapers representing approximately 85% of the global SAP market of $6B. Increasing consumer and supply chain demand for more natural, sustainable materials and products has driven the development of eco-friendly / natural labeled absorbent hygiene products (AHP). Eco-friendly diaper products currently make up about 3% of the global market and are experiencing strong growth at 10-15% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). This project will lead to the commercialization of a low-cost high-performance biobased SAP, offering significant environmental benefits as a more sustainable, eco-friendly alternative to petrobased SAP. This project could also generate positive economic impacts on domestic agriculture by creating new demand for bio-feedstocks such as waste glycerol. Finally, this project advances the scientific and technological state-of-the-art by developing a new bioprocess based on microbial co-cultures that could be extended to render more efficient, cost-effective routes for producing other biobased fuels and chemicals.The objectives of this Phase II research project are to develop a new biological route, based on microbial co-cultures, for cost-effective production of gamma-polyglutamic acid (PGA) and to commercialize cross-linked PGA SAP for AHP applications. In Phase I of this project, a microbial co-culture process was developed for efficient production of PGA via in-situ precursor production (ISPP) from low-cost bio-feedstocks. materials. Building on promising results in Phase I, further R&D will aim to reach pilot-scale production by the end of Phase II. Three specific technical objectives will be pursued: Objective 1: Strain engineering and bioprocess optimization to develop an ISPP fermentation process with commercially viable performance metrics. Objective 2: Optimization of downstream purification, SAP cross-linking, and finishing to produce a high performance finished PGA SAP product. Objective 3: Pilot-scale process demonstration to produce commercial quantities of PGA SAP for large scale customer/partner trials. This R&D plan will lead to transformative technological outcomes. The proposed process based on microbial co-cultures represents a distinct shift from the conventional paradigm of utilizing single-species monocultures for bioprocessing and offers substantial cost-savings. The engineering and process development strategies developed during this project will be transferrable for a broad range of other co-culture bioprocessing applications.