Engineering carbon conserving microbes for production of industrial chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass-derived C5 sugars
- ZymoChem, Castro Valley, CA (United States)
When microbes use bio-based feedstocks to make more reduced chemicals, deoxygenation most often occurs via the loss of ≥33% of the feedstock’s carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), limiting the maximum achievable theoretical yields to ≤67%. Given that feedstocks typically account for more than half of the total costs of a bioprocess, the carbon lost as CO2 generally precludes profitability for many bio-based endeavors. Additionally, such carbon-inefficient microbial approaches that exist today are tailored for using six-carbon (C6) sugars as feedstock carbon and typically suffer from poor utilization of other carbon sources such as five-carbon (C5) sugars (e.g., D-xylose and L-arabinose), which constitute >33% of the sugars in lignocellulosic feedstocks – the most abundant inedible form of biomass. Utilization of these C5 sugars is critical to the economic viability of biorefineries that use sugars derived from lignocellulosic biomass for producing of fuels and chemicals. Although there has been remarkable progress in lignocellulosic-based ethanol production, there remains a need for the development of new metabolic platforms that expand the range of bioproducts that can be made via engineered microbes and using lignocellulosic C5 sugars. To address these biotechnology needs, we have developed a carbon conserving (C2) biosynthetic pathway technology that can convert lignocellulosic C5 sugars (i.e., pentoses) to a range of industrially desired C5 αω-difunctional chemicals, specifically with no loss of carbon as CO2. Our novel C2 technology increases theoretical yields up to 50%, thus providing an opportunity to supplant state-of-the-art petroleum-based production methods, while also establishing the capability to use under-utilized lignocellulosic C5 sugars as feedstocks for chemicals production.
- Research Organization:
- ZymoChem, Castro Valley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0018563
- OSTI ID:
- 1601451
- Type / Phase:
- SBIR (Phase I)
- Report Number(s):
- DE-SC0018563
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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