SBIR Phase II: Novel microalgae for high yield hydrogen production

小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响是开发基于微藻的商业制氢工艺，该工艺将超越当前或开发中的技术。低成本、高纯度、可再生、可扩展的氢气生产技术可以促进更大的国内能源独立。许多行业，如石油化工，化学和电子行业，将受益于低成本的工业氢气。运输和发电行业将受益于燃料效率的提高。环境效益包括替代化石燃料，将制氢从天然气转换为阳光和水，大幅减少排放。减少燃煤和天然气发电厂产生的空气污染物。该项目的目标是推进工程藻类的使用，结合生物加工和硬件工程的最新进展，以制造清洁，可再生的氢气。 拟议的项目将开发使用新的代谢工程策略产生高氢气产量的微藻菌株。由于复杂的代谢途径和保护氢产生的基因调控，提高氢产生速率具有挑战性。拟议的项目将创造先进的藻类菌株，在目标工艺条件下将提高的产氢率与强劲的生长相结合。目标是：1）对嵌合基因进行工程改造以实施代谢工程策略，2）在过表达专有氢化酶基因cHYD 1的藻类中验证工程改造的基因，3）确定亲本菌株的基因型对嵌合基因的影响，4）将所开发的亲本基因型中最佳选择的基因进行联合收割机组合并产生新的生产菌株;和5）证明在受控的测试条件下生产菌株中足够的H2生产速率。该项目将在目标商业工艺环境中生产出所需的生产菌株，并大大提高氢气速率。该奖项反映了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 of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is the development of a microalgae-based commercial hydrogen production process that will surpass current or developing technologies. A technology for low-cost, high purity, renewable, scalable hydrogen production can facilitate greater domestic energy independence. Many industries, such as the petro-chemical, chemical, and electronics sectors, would benefit from low-cost industrial hydrogen. Transportation and electric power generation industries would benefit from increased fuel efficiency. Environmental benefits include replacement of fossil fuels, switching hydrogen production from natural gas to sunlight and water, substantial emissions reduction. and reduction of airborne pollutants generated by coal- and natural gas-powered power plants. The goal of this project is to advance the use of engineered algae, in combination with recent advances in bioprocessing and hardware engineering, to manufacture clean, renewable hydrogen. The proposed project will develop microalgae strains that generate high hydrogen yields using a novel metabolic engineering strategy. Hydrogen production rates are challenging to improve due to complicated metabolic pathways and gene regulation guarding hydrogen production. The proposed project will create advanced algal strains combining increased hydrogen production rates with robust growth under the target process conditions. The objectives are: 1) engineer the chimeric genes to implement the metabolic engineering strategy, 2) validate the engineered genes in algae overexpressing a proprietary hydrogenase gene cHYD1, 3) determine effects of genotypes of parental strains on the chimeric genes, 4) combine the best selected genes in the developed parental genotypes and generate new production strains; and 5) demonstrate adequate H2 production rates in the production strains under controlled testing conditions. This project will produce the desired production strain with greatly increased hydrogen rates in the target commercial process environment.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.