The 40 Hottest Technologies of 2018 – as voting gets underway, the nominees in depth
Renewable biodegradable plastic production from CO2
What does it do, how does it work, who is it aimed at?
Arizona State University (ASU) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have collaborated to genetically engineer and characterize a cyanobacterial strain that produces a significant, commercially relevant amount of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB). (R)-3HB is the most common building block for polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)-biodegradable and biocompatible thermoplastics. In the study, it was discovered that acetoacetyl-CoA reductase activity was the bottleneck in the photoautotrophic production of (R)-3HB from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis and mitigated the bottleneck by optimizing the gene s ribosome binding site. The optimization increased the production of (R)-3HB from 25 mg/liter/day to 200 mg/liter/day-an eight-fold increase, with more than 50% of fixed carbon redirected to the product of interest. CO2 and sunlight were the sole carbon and energy sources.
Competitively, what gives this technology an edge?
Increasing the productivity of (R)-3HB will allow increased, commercial-scale production of PHA – a biodegradable and biocompatible thermoplastic. PHA-based plastics can replace conventional petroleum-based plastics that have created an environmental crisis due to their low degradation rates. Additionally, (R)-3HB can be used in various medical applications and serves as a precursor to value-added stereospecific chemicals. Notably, in this collaborative work between ASU and NREL, (R)-3HB is produced by microorganisms, such as cyanobacteria, from inexpensive renewable resources such as waste CO2.
What stage of development is this technology at right now?
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