Enzymatic bioprocessing of pectin-rich agricultural sidestreams

Project summaryProject Title:Enzymatic bioprocessing of pectin-rich agricultural sidestreams.PD:Luke Latimer Ph.D.; Cofounder & Chief Technology Officer at ZestBio Inc.ZestBio Inc. is developing technologies for the production of specialty chemicals from prevalentbyproducts of the US fruit and vegetable processing industries. The ZestBio mission is alignedwith USDA NIFA priorities of developing new processes for manufacturing biobased chemicalsfrom US agricultural resources. The United States is uniquely positioned as a world leader in fruitand vegetable processing including sugar production from sugar beets (37 million tons/yr) andcitrus juicing (3 million tons/yr). However the peel and pulp byproducts from processing lackvalue-adding technologies. The proposed project aims to optimize and scale a value-adding invitro enzymatic conversion technology for the conversion of pectic monosaccharides into specialtychemicals. This enzymatic strategy can enable rapid bioprocessing with reduced OpEx andCapEx requirements compared to conventional approaches such as chemical synthesis orfermentation. The first chemical product from this bioprocessing technology can be formulated asa chelant or corrosion inhibitor for water treatment applications. These formulations exhibitsuperior heavy metal binding compared to established biobased chelants and on par or exceedingsynthetic and semi-synthetic chelants prevalent in the market. Additionally they are capable ofpreventing mild steel corrosion. Thus they satisfy the growing demand for sustainable and high- performing chemicals. The overall project goal is to prepare the technology for scaling in pilotbioreactors. First we propose improving the enzyme stability by screening variants andperforming mutagenesis on amino acid hotspots. Second we propose preliminary optimization ofenzyme production conditions. Third we propose optimization and scaling of synthesis tobioreactors. The anticipated results from this work plan are a technology ready for pilot-scalemanufacturing. Implementation of this biomanufacturing process can increase overall croprevenue. This offers reduced volatility in crop value financial sustainability for farmers andconstruction of rural-located fermentation facilities to create high paying technical jobs.Furthermore by using existing crop byproducts our products will have a lower carbon footprintcompared to competing chemicals made from petroleum or purified sugar.