Improved Lignocellulose Deconstructing Enzymes
- Luna Innovations Incorporated
Lignocellulosic biomass is a limitless renewable resource with the potential to provide all the chemical building blocks required for the planet’s fuels, chemicals, and materials. Fully utilizing lignocellulosic biomass could eliminate the global reliance on petroleum resources and would create a circular bioeconomy with a substantially smaller carbon footprint than conventional chemical industry practices. Degradation of lignocellulose is naturally performed by microorganisms. These microscopic organisms secrete enzymes into their environment which can depolymerize the lignocellulose. The result of this is either free lignin monomers that are metabolized by the microorganism, or better access to the hemicellulose and cellulose to use as a metabolite. Enzymatic degradation of lignin in industrial bioprocesses is challenging to perform for several reasons. Purified enzymes are expensive relative to chemical treatments that can depolymerize lignin, enzymes can become irreversibly stuck to the lignocellulose and lose activity, and enzymes both produce and can release toxic molecules. There is significant opportunity in the realm of lignocellulosic degrading enzymes to develop them to achieve economical biomass depolymerization for the envisioned circular bioeconomy. In this Phase I SBIR Luna has provided the proof of principle for a process to develop existing lignocellulosic deconstructing enzymes towards efficient use in industrial environmental conditions. This includes development of a rapid colorimetric screen for enzyme activity that can be used for subsequent enzyme activity assays. This process is extensible for adaptation of many enzymes for use in lignocellulose deconstruction, to create custom monomerization blends of constituent lignin subunits. These deconstructed lignin molecules will find many uses as specialty chemicals in food and feed, fragrances and flavors, and as chemical building blocks for synthesis of advanced polymers .
- Research Organization:
- Luna Innovations, Roanoke, VA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0021583
- OSTI ID:
- 1833822
- Type / Phase:
- SBIR (Phase I)
- Report Number(s):
- Final Report: DOE-LUNA-21583; 3862.01
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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