SBIR Phase I: An Energy-Efficient Fermentation Platform to Lower the Cost of Industrial Biomanufacturing

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project lies in making the industrial production of useful chemicals more efficient, more affordable, and less dependent on petroleum. Many everyday products can be made by growing microorganisms in large tanks, a process called fermentation. A central limitation of this approach is that microorganisms need oxygen, and oxygen dissolves poorly in water and is difficult to deliver evenly into large tanks. This limitation raises energy use, increases equipment cost, and reduces product quality. This project develops a new way to supply microorganisms with the chemical equivalent of oxygen in a fully dissolved form, removing this bottleneck. If successful, the approach could lower the energy and capital required for biological manufacturing and allow products that are currently difficult or costly to make to be produced reliably at scale. Broader benefits include strengthening domestic manufacturing, reducing reliance on imported raw materials, and making better use of existing industrial facilities. The proposed project addresses a fundamental barrier in industrial fermentation: the poor solubility and uneven delivery of oxygen, which limits how productively and economically aerobic processes can be scaled. The research objective is to engineer a common industrial bacterium to respire using a soluble, oxygen-releasing compound, perchlorate, in place of gaseous oxygen. Because perchlorate is highly water soluble, it can be supplied uniformly through the liquid feed, eliminating the gas-to-liquid transfer step that constrains conventional fermentation. The work introduces the genes required for dissimilatory perchlorate reduction into the host bacterium and ensures the proper assembly of the associated respiratory proteins. Phase I research will assemble and prioritize candidate genes, construct and refine bacterial strains through genetic engineering and iterative selection, and validate performance in laboratory-scale bioreactors. Anticipated technical results include strains that grow at a substantial fraction of normal aerobic rates while converting perchlorate to harmless chloride, and reactor data quantifying productivity and energy use relative to conventional aerobic controls. Successful completion will demonstrate that this oxygen-generating metabolism is feasible and will establish a rigorous foundation for scale-up in subsequent phases. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.