Developing Mixed Microbial Populations for Industrial Sidestream Conversion into Textile Dyes and Wider Bio-Products

使用酵母/细菌和精密发酵工艺的生物制造是一种强大的方法，可以取代目前污染和破坏性极大的制造工艺，如化石燃料开采、不可降解塑料生产和集约化畜牧业。但这些有害行业背后有着数十年的基础设施、规模经济和补贴，这使得生物制造工艺的商业优化，以实现现有市场上的价格平价，对所有行业的生物制造商来说都是一个巨大的挑战。实现商业可行性的一种方法是使用更便宜的原材料进行精密发酵。目前，大多数生物制造商使用原生糖作为他们的原料。这些糖几乎占到整个生物制造成本的50%，而且它们还会与其他市场产生竞争，这些市场可以更好地利用这些糖，例如直接进入现有的食品制造链。在这个项目中，evoltor将利用其专有的微生物优化技术平台开发全新的微生物系统，该系统可以比任何现有的微生物解决方案更好地有效利用工业侧流作为发酵原料。侧流作为生物制造原料的捕获具有挑战性，因为它们通常复杂，不纯且不一致，使可靠的发酵变得困难。但是每年有超过5亿吨的垃圾被填埋或焚烧（估计造成7200亿美元的经济损失）。随着evoltor的新微生物开发，我们将在全球范围内解锁生物制造的侧流价值，推动我们的经济更接近迫切需要的生物工业革命。为了第一次展示我们的新微生物的力量，我们正在与辉伯期货合作。辉伯公司正在开发他们的“Coelicolor项目”，以生产细菌纺织染料，并分散生产高质量、可持续的服装。通过允许他们使用目前浪费或低估的侧流作为染料生产的原材料，该项目将在2023年底将辉伯期货的面料推向市场，并实现他们建立端到端完全合乎道德、公平和可持续的纺织品生物制造供应链的使命。

Biomanufacturing using yeast/bacteria and precision fermentation processes is a powerful approach that can displace manufacturing processes that are currently extremely polluting and destructive such as fossil fuel extraction, non-degradable plastic production and intensive animal agriculture. But these harmful industries have decades of infrastructure, economies-of-scale and subsidisation behind them, making the commercial optimisation of biomanufacturing processes to achieve price parity on existing markets a huge challenge for biomanufacturers across all sectors.One way that commercial viability can be achieved is through using cheaper raw materials to feed into precision fermentation processes. Currently, the majority of biomanufacturers use virgin sugars as their feedstocks. These can make up almost 50% of overall biomanufacturing cost, and they also create competition with other markets where these sugars could arguably be better used, for example going directly into existing food manufacturing chains. In this project, Evolutor will use its proprietary microbe optimisation technology platform to develop entirely new microbial systems that can effectively utilise industrial side streams as fermentation feedstocks better than any existing microbial solutions.Side streams are challenging to capture as biomanufacturing feedstocks as they are generally complex, impure and inconsistent, making reliable fermentation difficult. But over 500M tonnes of waste goes to landfill or is incinerated every year (an estimated economic loss of $720B). With Evolutor's new microbe developments, we will unlock side stream valorisation for biomanufacturing on a global scale, pushing our economies closer to a much needed Bio-Industrial Revolution.To demonstrate the power of our new microbes in the first instance, we are partnering with Faber Futures. Faber are developing their "Project Coelicolor" to produce bacterial textile dyes and decentralise the production of high-quality, sustainable garments. By allowing them to use currently wasted or under-valorised side streams as raw materials for this dye production, this project will push Faber Futures' fabrics to market in late 2023 and fulfil their mission of building textile biomanufacturing supply chains that are entirely **ethical, equitable and sustainable** from end-to-end.