Production of High Value Products from Gaseous Waste Streams

Technologies that mitigate the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and that displace petroleum-based processes for fuel and chemical production are urgently needed to combat climate change. One promising strategy that can simultaneously accomplish both of these goalsis to use microbes to convert greenhouse gases present in industrial gaseous waste streams into chemicals and fuels that are currently produced from petroleum. During Phase I of this grant, Visolis demonstrated the feasibility of a novel hybrid process that uses engineered microbes to convert gaseous waste streams into a versatile platform molecule that can be further processed into a range of petroleum replacement products. Visolis has already developed catalytic processes to convert the platform molecule into various chemicals that are of high value to the plastics, transportation, and pharmaceutical industries. Our process utilizes the carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen present in industrial waste gases as feedstocks for chemical production, which has the double benefit of reducing costs while also preventingthe release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. During Phase II of this project, we will further optimize our production strains and fermentation parameters in order to increase product titers and yields as well as integrate and scale up our process into a pilot plant. Our fully developed process will produce a portfolio of sustainable, high value, carbon-negative chemicals and carbon-neutral 2nd generation renewable fuels that will be cost-competitive withpetroleum-based processes and fossil fuels.