Abstract
Dear Colleagues:
Industrial biotechnologists delight in elegant solutions. This may be to satisfy current real-world needs or to foster new paradigms for future realities. Their work is manifested in products and processes that impact our lives in many different ways, be it with bioenergy, personal care products, recyclable materials, environmental remediation, agricultural and industrial chemicals, high-performance surfactants, detergents, fibers, healthier foods and beverages, the list is long.
Industrial biotechnologists operate through discovery and application of technological advances firmly based on science. Through sound engineering, their efforts efficiently impact financial, production, environmental, sustainability, and other functional goals. They also operate through an aesthetic manifested as innovative applications of biological properties. Industrial biotechnologists are essentially master builders; their craft synthesizes firmitas, utilitas, and venustas. 1 This issue of Industrial Biotechnology features examples of such “firmness, commodity, and delight”.
A first set of examples highlights several microalgae-based products and processes, beginning with the feature commentary by John Benemann and peers entitled “Autotrophic Microalgae Biomass Production: From Niche Markets to Commodities.” Within the context of commercial volumes, prices, and market sizes, the authors address how current microalgal biomass production technologies might be advanced to become cost-competitive with intermediate–value products (e.g., nutritional oils), as well as agricultural commodities for animal feeds, biofuels, and chemicals. One highlight is the opportunity for a biorefinery approach—to generate multiple products—using microalgae pond polycultures for wastewater treatment, and for such processes to contribute to greenhouse gas abatement. Illustrating this is a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored research effort conducted by MicroBio Engineering Inc. in partnership with California Polytechnic State University, as seen on this issue's cover.
This issue continues with several emerging approaches that support the vision of designing and engineering a biological solution for an economically and environmentally sustainable future. Profitable industrialization of any species or input feedstock relies on smart systems design and engineering along with an early incorporation of ROI principals to guide decision-making. A Catalyzing Innovation article by Weixing Tan, “ROI Integrated Commercialization—An Adaptive Pathway for Microalgae Technology” offers a case study for how a framework for return on investment (ROI) was used to develop microalgae production hardware under the Pollutants to Products (P2P) Research Initiative at the Grande Prairie Regional College in Alberta, Canada.
On the backend of biomass production is the generation and commercialization of the algae-derived products, which oftentimes face the challenge of cheaper petroleum-derived incumbents. As described in the interview with Kelvin Okamoto, his company, Gen3Bio, is combining biotechnology, engineering, and design into an intriguing solution to upgrade and monetize algal sludge from municipal waste water treatment facilities. This process can yield biosuccinic acid in addition to food and animal feed components; the latter is rare for sewage waste but the process yields high quality biosolids that fall under U.S. EPA 503-class A approvals (including virtually pathogen-free). The Gen3Bio approach enables pilot-scale enzymolysis and subsequent solids/filtrate separation to yield a sugar feedstock suited for fermentation as well as a protein and lipid-rich precipitate for nutrition.
Another intriguing twist on employing and monetizing waste input is seen in the emerging work of NuLeaf Tech. This is described in the Catalyzing Innovation article by Rachel Major and colleagues. Using biomimicry, NuLeaf is engineering a product that applies the principles of wetlands, effluent treatment, microbial fuels cells, aquaponics, hydroponics, and vertical farming to yield crops, clean energy and reusable water in deployable, modular units.
Included among the photosynthetic microalgae as production platforms or process aides are the blue-green algae, which are aquatic photosynthetic bacteria. Similar to their eukaryotic cousins, the prokaryotic cyanobacteria produce metabolites of high value as specialty chemicals. Phycocyanin is one such metabolite, as reviewed by Michele de Morais and colleagues in “Phycocyanin From Microalgae: Properties, Extraction and Purification, with Some Recent Applications.” Phycocyanin is a non-toxic water-soluble fluorescent pigment protein (a phycobiliprotein) popular in nutritional supplements. Recently, phycocyanin from Spirulina (Arthrospira), a freshwater cyanobacterium, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a food colorant, with its striking blue color expected to rapidly displace problematic artificial blue dyes. Perhaps less known is its potential application in nanotechnology field, specifically bioactive nanofibers embedded with phycocyanin, as highlighted in the review.
The development of industrial photosynthetic cyanobacterial platforms in addition to Spirulina would be very useful, if desirable upstream or downstream production features are proffered. The research of Probir Das and peers, “Outdoor continuous cultivation of a self-settling marine cyanobacterium, Chroococcidiopis sp.,” details the continuous production of a marine blue-green algae in outdoor raceways over months at high biomass density and without major contamination or loss from “foreign algae” or predatory grazers. The strain, Chroococcidiopis, was found to tolerate temperatures reaching up to 48°C and, significantly, is marine. (Interestingly, the genus is under consideration as a Mars colonization candidate due its tolerance of high levels of radiation, high salinity, and arid environments.) The described strain contains high protein in addition to a mix of phycobiliproteins with potential to be added to fish feed to deliver anti-oxidant, and anti-inflammation properties.
As remarked by the authors, the globe is currently facing an acute freshwater crisis, wherefore developing marine microalgal or cyanobacterial biomass as feed ingredients is imperative for our food security. Additionally, the Chroccocidiopis strain requires minimal harvesting energy input, similar to Spirulina, supporting an overall energy balance more favorable for commodities production.
Pursuit of new species for industrial platforms offers exciting possibilities. Methanotrophic microorganisms can consume methane from natural gas to produce lipids and protein as well as bioengineered forms of building block hydrocarbon molecules. For biofuel and other industrial products, the appeal of exploiting methanotrophs is multifold: Offering a novel solution for economic products (including liquid biofuels in the absence of subsidies), reducing impact of a harmful greenhouse gas on climate change, and monetizing a large supply of underutilized carbon. In “Innovating New Bioconversion Pathways,” Robert Walsh, of Intrexon, provides an overview of their strain development for an innovative methanotroph platform used currently for conversion of methane into isobutanol and terpenes with exceptionally high stoichiometric yields compared to other organisms.
The world market for enzymes is projected to exceed USD $6 Billion by 2020, with the hydrolytic enzymes segment being dominant. This is spurred by the large-scale use of enzymes for hydrolysis of carbohydrates and proteins critical to many different industries. In their article, “Review on cellulase and xylanase engineering for biofuel production,” Anil Prajapati and colleagues examine current progress in improving enzyme efficiencies for releasing the sugars from plant biomass, whose composition is about 70% pentoses and hexoses. Improved yields of cellulosic sugars from hydrolyzed lignocellulosic biomass are being enabled using novel biocatalysts produced through protein engineering. After enzymatic hydrolysis, the sugars are employed in microbial fermentations to produce molecules for biofuels and renewable industrial chemicals. Using techniques such as rational design or irrational design (directed evolution), cellulases and xylanases are steadily being engineered for thermal stability, pH tolerance, and catalytic activity necessary for streamlined biorefineries.
Another class of hydrolytic enzymes, the microbial alkaline proteases, are described in a research paper entitled “Alkaline Protease from Nocardiopsis arvandica UTMC 1492 Isolated from Saline Soil with the Ability to Produce Bioactive Protein Hydrolysate” by Fatemeh Mohammadipanah and colleagues. Such enzymes are heavily utilized as industrial catalysts that operate at moderate to extreme pH levels above neutrality. Their application includes in detergents, strategic metals recovery, leather processing, food processing and feeds, waste treatment, and pharmaceuticals, to name a few. New microbial candidates as source organisms for such proteases, and identification of their manufacturing conditions, are invaluable for advances in industrial formulations. Mohammadipanah et al. describe a heat-tolerant alkaline protease obtained from a new, productive isolate of the soil bacterium, Nocardiopsis, that can be used as a partially purified enzyme initially targeting the food and feed industries.
The synthesis of firm science and functional needs of society through gratifying experimental design and execution via industrial biotechnology is a modern-day example of “firmness, commodity, and delight.” As seen in this current issue, Industrial Biotechnology is proud to continue to uphold these values for global, mutual betterment.