SBIR Phase II: Microbial conversion of pectin-rich agricultural byproducts into specialty chemicals

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力使新技术的商业化成为可能，这些新技术将富含果胶的农业副产品转化为有用的特种化学品，用于现有的数十亿美元的化学品市场。美国是富含果胶的副产品的主要生产国，包括柑橘（每年500万吨），苹果（每年500万吨）和甜菜（每年3700万吨）工业。通过这种平台发酵技术，可以将这些美国副产品转化为增值产品。这项技术的实施可以增加作物的总收入，远远超过目前的副产品减少战略。这降低了作物价值的波动性，为农民提供了财务可持续性，并建设了农村发酵设施。此外，通过使用现有的农作物副产品和生态友好的发酵，所产生的化学产品将具有比由石油或糖制成的竞争化学品更低的环境影响。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目旨在提高工业果胶丰富的农业副产品转化为特种化学产品。每年生产大量的农业副产品，如柑橘皮和甜菜浆，但缺乏增值技术。通过使用微生物代谢方面的新科学突破和菌株工程工具，微生物可以通过环境可持续发酵将这些副产品中的糖转化为有用的化学品。第二阶段项目的目标是提高使用该技术合成第一种化学产品的生产率。第一个目的是改善宿主生物体的氧化代谢，以帮助菌株生产力。第二个目标是使用菌株的组合文库来改进和优化微生物的发酵速率。最终的目标是采用改良的菌株并使用生物反应器优化发酵条件。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is enabling commercialization of novel technologies that convert pectin-rich agricultural byproducts into useful specialty chemicals for existing multi-billion dollar chemical markets. The United States is a leading producer of pectin-rich byproducts, including the citrus (5 million tons annually), apple (5 million tons annually) and sugar beet (37 million tons annually) industries. With this platform fermentation technology, it is possible to perform specific chemical conversion of these US byproducts into value-adding products. Implementation of this technology can increase overall revenue from crops far exceeding current byproduct mitigation strategies. This offers reduced volatility in crop value, financial sustainability for farmers, and construction of rural fermentation facilities. Furthermore, by using existing crop byproducts and eco-friendly fermentations, the resulting chemical products will be have lower environmental impact than competing chemicals made from petroleum or sugar. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is designed to improve the conversion of industrial pectin-rich agricultural byproducts into specialty chemical products. Each year, large volumes of agricultural byproducts, such as citrus peels and sugar beet pulp are produced, but lack value-adding technologies. By using novel scientific breakthroughs in microbial metabolism and tools for strain engineering, microbial organisms can be engineered to convert the sugars from these byproducts into useful chemicals through environmentally sustainable fermentation. The goal of this Phase II project is to improve the production rate for the synthesis of the first chemical product using this technology. The first objective is to improve the oxidative metabolism of the host organism to aid in strain productivity. The second objective is to use a combinatorial library of strains to refine and optimize the microorganisms' fermentation rate. The final objective is to take the improved strains and optimize the fermentation conditions using bioreactors. This three pronged-approach promises to improve chemical production rates.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.