A new biotech process for xylitol production from ARCITEKBio Ltd.

木糖醇是一种天然存在于新鲜水果中的甜味剂，其卡路里比蔗糖少33%，能抑制蛀牙，独立于体内胰岛素代谢，因此在维持饮食、牙齿和糖尿病健康方面有应用。虽然木糖醇存在于植物中，但其数量如此之少，以至于从商业上提取它在经济上不可行，工业生产依赖于化学合成，使用酸、高温、高压和重金属催化剂来生产木糖醇。利用专有的微生物，初创公司ARCITEKBio有限公司开发了一种环保的发酵工艺，利用小麦秸秆等作物废料生产木糖醇。该项目的目标是使ARCITEKBio有限公司能够扩大木糖醇生产过程，验证这种工业生物技术（IB）与传统化学合成方法的技术经济效益。一旦纯产品大规模生产，它将与协作的最终用户共享，用于beta测试和早期监管评估。到2025年，木糖醇的市场价值预计将达到10亿英镑，并以6.2%的复合年增长率增长，ARCITEKBio有限公司正在寻求进一步的资金和供应链内的合作伙伴，最终将ib介导的木糖醇生产在英国乃至更远的地方商业化。

Xylitol is a sweetener found naturally in fresh fruit and has 33% fewer calories than table sugar, inhibits tooth decay, is metabolised independently of insulin in the body, and as such has application in maintaining dietary, dental and diabetic health. While xylitol is present in plants, the quantities are so low that it is not economically feasible to extract it commercially and industrial production relies on chemical synthesis that uses acid, high temperature, pressure and a heavy metal catalyst to produce xylitol. Using proprietary microbes, the start-up company ARCITEKBio Ltd. has developed an environmentally friendly fermentation process to produce xylitol using crop waste such as wheat straw. The objective of this project is to enable ARCITEKBio Ltd. to scale-up the xylitol production process, validate the techno-economics of this industrial biotechnology (IB) against the traditional chemical synthesis method. Once the pure product is produced at scale, it will be shared with collaborative end-users for beta-testing and early stage regulatory assessments. With the market value for xylitol anticipated to reach £1 billion by 2025 and growing at a compound annual growth rate of 6.2%, ARCITEKBio Ltd is looking to secure further funding and partners within the supply chain to ultimately commercialise the IB-mediated production of xylitol in the UK and possibly further afield.