SBIR Phase I: Sustainable textile manufacturing through protein engineering

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响将展示将农业废物中的蛋白质转化为高性能、成本效益高、环保的棉花、丝绸和类聚酯纤维的前景。纺织生产对环境和废水产生负面影响。在农业废料中发现的结构蛋白是天然丝绸、棉花和理论上的聚酯的替代品。拟议的项目将推进一种新的、坚韧的、具有成本效益的、环保的蛋白质基纺织纤维。拟议的纺织品将是可回收和可生物降解的。蛋白质基纤维将改变价值9810亿美元的全球纺织业，并使数十亿磅的农业废物得到新的利用。该项目将推进一项维持蛋白质一级结构（主链化学）的技术，用于合成纺织品的开发。挑战是同时恢复蛋白质的二级和三级结构，这些结构负责天然植物和动物来源纤维中固有的机械和美学特性的良好平衡。该工艺将蛋白质分子生物学与新颖的、生态无害的纤维形成工程相结合。先进的制造技术将用于在闭环过程中回收化学品和水，而不产生有害的副产品。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 I project will demonstrate the promise of transforming proteins found in agricultural waste into high-performance, cost-effective and environmentally friendly cotton, silk and polyester-like fibers. Textile production negatively impacts the environment and wastewater. Structural proteins found in agricultural waste are a substitute to natural silk, cotton, and theoretically polyester. The proposed project will advance a new, tough, cost-effective, environmentally friendly, protein-based textile fiber. The proposed textile will be both recyclable and biodegradable. Protein-based fibers will transform the $981 B global textile industry and enable new use of billions of pounds of agricultural waste. The proposed project will advance a technology to maintain protein primary structure (backbone chemistry) for synthetic textile development. The challenge is to simultaneously restore the protein secondary and tertiary structure responsible for the excellent balance of mechanical and aesthetic properties inherent in natural plant and animal sourced fibers. The proposed process integrates protein molecular biology with novel, ecologically sound fiber formation engineering. Advanced manufacturing will be used to recreate fibers in a closed-loop process recycling chemicals and water without harmful byproducts.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.