Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Low-Cost Biological Solution for Reducing Carbon Pollution in Chemical Manufacturing
EPA Contract Number: EPD17020Title: Low-Cost Biological Solution for Reducing Carbon Pollution in Chemical Manufacturing
Investigators: Greenfield, Derek
Small Business: Industrial Microbes, Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: II
Project Period: March 1, 2017 through February 28, 2019 (Extended to October 31, 2020)
Project Amount: $300,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase II (2016) Recipients Lists
Research Category: SBIR - Air and Climate , Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Description:
Industrial Microbes is building a platform technology that disruptively lowers the cost of fermentative chemical production. Using the tools of synthetic biology, we are engineering proven industrial microbes to produce chemicals from the least expensive carbon sources possible, including methane from biogas. Traditional chemical production is a major source of carbon pollution. Many chemicals could be produced from waste instead.
Methane is a feedstock that has the potential to transform the bioeconomy by lowering costs, unlocking new chemical markets, and reducing carbon emissions. The combination of methane-oxidation and the flexibility of working with E. coli as a host offers a powerful platform for industrial biotechnology. E. coli has been used in large-scale fermentations for decades, and by expanding the suite of raw materials, we can leverage the power of synthetic biology to make chemicals in a low-cost, greener process.
Methane is a universal carrier of carbon and energy that is generated when many forms of organic waste decompose. Methane is an ideal raw material for chemical production due to its low cost, abundance, and energy density. Renewable methane is available from landfills, wastewater treatment, farms, and food waste from the degradation of organic matter. Fermentation of methane into chemicals has attracted a significant amount of attention over the years, but the challenges of working with natural methane-consuming bacteria prevented the commercialization of any such technology. Engineering E. coli to consume methane circumvents many of those problems.
Our innovation is an engineered microbe that can consume methane from biogas and produce various chemicals. The chemical conversion occurs inside living cells by engineered enzyme pathways, in a process similar to brewing beer. Using biogas as a raw material can result in carbon-negative chemicals and materials.
This project focused on production of fatty acids, commodity chemicals used in applications from fuels to laundry detergents to cosmetics. Fatty acids are currently made from unsustainable palm oil, the largest oil market in the world. Palm oil is harvested from enormous monoculture plantations mainly in Malaysia and Indonesia, associated with various problems. Natural forests are burned to clear land for planting, releasing carbon dioxide and causing hundreds of thousands of cases of respiratory illness per year. Habitat loss is devastating for orangutans and other species which become easier targets for poaching. Plantation and oil mill runoff degrades water quality and soil quality. Child labor and human trafficking have increased in palm oil plantations due to abusive labor practices.
US-based manufacturing of fatty acids can provide bio-manufacturing jobs while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Lower-cost products can make American manufacturing more globally competitive and grow the biobased economy. Bio-manufacturing can have a positive environmental impact and reduce carbon pollution by replacing older, pollution-generating and carbon-intensive methods. This is because bio-manufacturing has higher selectivity, lower carbon emissions, and fewer toxic byproducts compared to traditional chemical catalysis.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
The ability to oxidize methane into methanol is the critical first biological step for building more complex molecules. Although natural methane-oxidizing bacteria have been studied for decades, no one had previously demonstrated a strain of E. coli with the ability to turn methane into methanol in vivo. Industrial Microbes achieved this breakthrough, and then built upon that breakthrough for this project.
We began this project by building a strain to convert methane to fatty acids. This required combining the methane assimilation genes with the fatty acid production genes in a single host organism, as well as metabolic pathway balancing. We next performed gas fermentations and some limited process development to successfully convert methane into fatty acids. From here, we performed multiple laboratory evolution strategies to improve the bottleneck in the pathway, the incorporation of methanol into central metabolism.
The major result from this project was successful conversion of methane to fatty acids. This result supported IP filings, as well as partnership discussions. Additionally, we made profound discoveries about the long-term potential for the metabolic enzyme pathway that is needed for these fatty acid production strains.
Conclusions:
Our product is an innovative microbe and biomanufacturing platform for fatty acids and derivatives, feeding into a diverse set of applications. We estimate our process can lower the manufacturing cost of fatty acid derivatives by 10-40% by using biogas as a raw material. We pioneered this route by building the world’s first biological catalyst that allows for FFAs to be made from biogas.
Our business model is to jointly develop and scale our process with partners via joint ventures. We have validated this strategy using customer interviews with major chemical producers.
Industrial Microbes received a foundational patent in the U.S. (US 10,689,674) for the core component of its technology to turn methane into valuable chemicals using fermentation. This broad patent relates to the successful expression of an enzyme in E. coli that enables the cell to convert methane into methanol.
SBIR Phase I:
Low-Cost Biological Solution for Reducing Carbon Pollution in Chemical Manufacturing | Final ReportThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.