SBIR Phase II: Converting Organic Waste to Biopolymer by Synergizing Anaerobic Digestion and Synthetic Biology

SBIR Phase II: Converting Organic Waste to Biopolymer by Synergizing AnaerobicDigestion and Synthetic BiologyThe urgency for combating climate change has created a massive market demand fortechnologies that use renewable resources instead of petroleum. The hundreds of million tonsof organic waste generated annually domestically as an untapped resource provide a low- hanging fruit opportunity with tremendous economic and environmental benefits. Producingbiodegradable plastics from waste biomass offers a favorable option because of the highvalue of the products the enormous global market for the replacement of fossil-based plasticand the high carbon use efficiency. Unfortunately a technology that enables such a waste-to- biopolymer conversion currently is still not a commercial reality. This project is proposed toaddress this very technological gap. The ultimate goal of this effort is to commercialize sucha novel technology that valorizes wet waste streams by producing biopolymers(polyhydroxyalkanoate PHA). This will be accomplished uniquely by synergizing thesuperior capability of anaerobic digestion (AD) in processing organic waste with theadvantage of synthetic biology in building novel metabolic pathways. The AD process isharnessed to funnel various organic carbons in the waste into simple intermediates. Theintermediates are then used as building blocks to efficiently biosynthesize biopolymers byengineered metabolic pathways in a yeast host. Integrating both processes takes theadvantages of microbial communities in the AD process and a robust microbial cell factorydeveloped via synthetic biology leading to efficient conversion of waste to target productswith high yield and productivity.The concept of the technology was proven and a sample quantity biopolymer wassuccessfully produced in the Phase I project. The specific goal for this phase II project is tovalidate and optimize the process at a pilot scale and to produce a sufficient amount ofbiopolymer for laboratory evaluation of its suitability for food packaging application. Thisproject goal will be reached by achieving four objectives: (1) enhancing the cell factory toboost productivity further and improve functionality (2) optimizing unit operationoptimization at the bench-scale and their integration to function as a complete system (3)pilot testing of the integrated system for performance optimization and sample productionand (4) conducting product property and suitability evaluation and techno-economic analysis(TEA). Eight specific tasks including laboratory studies bench-scale tests and pilot-scaleevaluations have been devised for achieving these objectives. An extensive business networkand a strong university research partner have been established to devote to completing theproject.The expected primary results of the proposed research include (1) the delivery of a functionalprototype system at a pilot scale (2) achieving specified process performance metrics thatsupport the cost target defined through TEA and (3) demonstrating the suitability of thebiopolymer for food packaging application. These results will mark a significant milestone incommercializing the technology which upon successful deployment will not only supplymore affordable biodegradable plastics for meeting the growing market demand but alsocontribute to accelerating the development of the bio-based industry and creating values andbusiness opportunities for utilizing waste streams that are presently a liability.