High Yield Conversion of Waste to Biochemicals with a Synthetic Biology Platform

High production cost remains the major barrier to commercialization of bio-based products. Using organic wastes as feedstock offers a promising option because of additional benefits in environmental protection and resource conservation. The goal of this project is to overcome the economic barrier by building an innovative waste to chemical (W2C) technology platform that produces biopolymers from organic wastes with high yield at low cost. Success in this project has the potential to advance enabling technologies, accelerate the development of the bio-based industry and maximize biochemicals production from organic waste streams. The project goal will be achieved by synergizing the unique advantage of anaerobic digestion (AD) and the development in synthetic biology. The AD process funnels various forms of organic carbons in the waste into simple intermediate volatile fatty acid (VFA) molecules. The novel synthetic pathway allows using the VFAs directly as building block to biologically synthesis polymer molecules efficiently without producing by-product. Innovative integration of both steps assures high efficient utilization of carbon for the synthesis of target products with high overall yield and productivity. This technology also takes the advantages of mixed microbial community in the AD process and the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica as a cell factory.