High Value Chemicals from Low Cost One Carbon Feedstock

To compete with existing chemical manufacturing processes based on petrochemical derived raw materials, low cost feedstocks for biological fermentation processes are essential, since the feedstock typically equates to >60% of the overall production cost. In addition, the yield based on carbon needs to be high, which is very difficult to achieve with sugars or cellulosic feedstocks with a high oxygen content, since the oxygen is lost as CO2. The same holds true for the production of biofuels. Methane (CH4) and methanol(CH3OH) are one of the lowest cost carbon sources available in the abundance required to produce bio-based commodity chemicals on a scale that could replace existing chemical manufacturing processes. Efforts to use natural gas in transportation, either directly or by conversion to a liquid fuel, have been spurred by recent increases in available supply and a growing price spread between natural gas and petroleum, especially in the United States. A disruptive production process based on CH4 and/or CH3OH would accelerate the growth and market penetration of biobased chemicals and fuels considerably, not only replacing existing chemical processes, but also 1st and 2nd generation sugar/cellulosics processes. Aerobic methanotrophs represent the only available route for methane bioconversion, activating methane to methanol via methane monooxygenase(MMO) and subsequently converting methanol to formaldehyde en route to chemical and fuel production. AIM: In this project, we will explore the possibility of using methane as a feedstock for the production of high value chemicals; to improve the rates and energy efficiencies of methane uptake, as well as approaches to engineer high-productivity methane conversion organisms.
STRATEGY: Our aim will be progress through the following activities:- (i) identifying the most appropriate methane/methanol-utilising chassis; (ii) implementing the requisite gene technologies for modifying the organism; (iii) using synthetic biology to engineer the strain to produce an exemplar platform chemical, and; (v) optimising the fermentation process to be used in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) as benchmark for the evaluation of production strains in various gas fermentation reactor designs.