STTR Phase I: Cost-effective production of biopolymers for eco-friendly erosion control and soil revegetation with synthetic microbial consortia

STTR 第一阶段：利用合成微生物群落，经济有效地生产生物聚合物，用于生态友好的侵蚀控制和土壤植被恢复

• 批准号: 1448990
• 负责人: Jeremy Minty
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Ecovia Renewables Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1448990&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Cost; effective; production

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project will be the development of a new biological route, based on microbial co- cultures, for efficient production of an environmentally friendly (eco-friendly) mixture of biopolymers for revegetation and erosion control applications, with a $375 million potential market. Tackifying polymers (adhesive-like materials) are widely used to stabilize loose soils/mulches and promote revegetation via aggregation and water retention. This project will focus on producing an eco-friendly biopolymer mixture of microbial polyamino acids and polysaccharides that has improved properties compared to conventional tackifiers, providing superior adhesion and water retention. Despite promising potential and market demand for more effective bio-based tackifiers, these microbial biopolymers have never been investigated for use in this application, as current fermentation methods for producing them are not economical. The key innovation in this project entails engineering microbial co-cultures to produce relatively expensive biopolymer precursors in-situ from beet molasses, an inexpensive and renewable feedstock, resulting in dramatic cost reductions. Beyond biopolymer production, the proposed approach of engineering co-cultures for in-situ precursor production (ISPP) is potentially transferrable to many other bioprocesses, and could offer more efficient, cost-effective routes for producing other bio-based fuels and chemicals.The objectives of this Phase I research project are to i) implement, experimentally characterize, and model co-culture prototypes to demonstrate technoeconomic feasibility of biopolymer production with this approach, and ii) validate the performance of these biopolymers in revegetation and erosion control applications. Completion of these objectives will demonstrate proof-of-concept, and represent important technical milestones towards commercializing this technology. The proposed approach of engineering synthetic microbial consortia represents a distinct shift from the conventional paradigm of utilizing single-species monocultures for bioprocessing and offers substantial potential cost-savings through in-situ precursor production and process consolidation. Despite these potential benefits, synthetic microbial consortia for bioprocessing have not been explored in a commercial context due to the level of high technical risk entailed. Building on prior NSF-funded academic research in engineering consortia for cellulosic biofuel production, this project will implement microbial co- cultures capable of producing polyamino acids / polysaccharides through ISPP and perform a preliminary investigation of the interplay between ecological interactions, environmental conditions, and key performance metrics (such as titer, yield, and biopolymer composition). This project will also investigate the novel application of polyamino acids / polysaccharides as bio-tackifiers for revegetation and erosion control, enabled by the potential cost-savings of the proposed co-culture.

该小企业技术转让第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是开发一种基于微生物共培养的新生物途径，以有效生产环境友好（生态友好）的生物聚合物混合物，用于植被恢复和侵蚀控制应用，具有 3.75 亿美元的潜在市场。增粘聚合物（粘合剂类材料）广泛用于稳定松散的土壤/覆盖物，并通过聚集和保水促进植被恢复。 该项目将重点生产一种由微生物聚氨基酸和多糖组成的环保生物聚合物混合物，与传统增粘剂相比，该混合物具有改进的性能，提供卓越的粘合力和保水性。尽管更有效的生物基增粘剂具有广阔的潜力和市场需求，但从未研究过这些微生物生物聚合物在该应用中的使用，因为目前生产它们的发酵方法并不经济。 该项目的关键创新在于工程微生物共培养，以甜菜糖蜜（一种廉价且可再生的原料）原位生产相对昂贵的生物聚合物前体，从而大幅降低成本。 除了生物聚合物生产之外，所提出的用于原位前体生产（ISPP）的工程共培养方法有可能转移到许多其他生物过程，并且可以为生产其他生物基燃料和化学品提供更有效、更具成本效益的途径。该第一阶段研究项目的目标是 i) 实施共培养原型、进行实验表征和建模，以证明采用这种方法生产生物聚合物的技术经济可行性，以及 ii) 验证这些生物聚合物在植被恢复和恢复方面的性能。侵蚀控制应用。 这些目标的完成将展示概念验证，并代表该技术商业化的重要技术里程碑。 所提出的工程合成微生物群落的方法代表了与利用单一物种单一培养物进行生物加工的传统范例的明显转变，并通过原位前体生产和工艺整合提供了巨大的潜在成本节约。尽管有这些潜在的好处，但由于技术风险较高，用于生物加工的合成微生物联盟尚未在商业环境中进行探索。该项目以之前 NSF 资助的纤维素生物燃料生产工程联盟学术研究为基础，将实施能够通过 ISPP 生产聚氨基酸/多糖的微生物共培养，并对生态相互作用、环境条件和关键因素之间的相互作用进行初步调查。性能指标（例如效价、产量和生物聚合物成分）。 该项目还将研究聚氨基酸/多糖作为生物增粘剂用于植被恢复和侵蚀控制的新应用，通过拟议的共培养的潜在成本节约来实现。