Bioproduction of high-value chemicals from Seaweeds

With a predicted global market of >$2 billion and importance to e.g., textiles, adhesives, plastics industries, 3-hydroxypropionate (3-HP) is the world's third most valuable platform chemical. However, current biosynthetic and chemical routes for 3-HP production are too costly or inefficient for industrialscale production. This project aims to develop a cost-effective and low carbon emission microbial biosynthetic route for 3-HP production from algal waste.Molecular genetics will be employed to generate proprietary microbial strains with enhanced bio-3-HP production from abundant metabolites present in farmed macroalgae. Analytical chemistry techniques, e.g. chromatography and mass spectroscopy, will be used to quantify production of this high-value chemical. Growth conditions will be investigated in batch and ultimately in bioreactor settings that optimise bio-3-HP production by the strains generated. Furthermore, a method for 3-HP extraction from the cultured strains will be devised, tested, and optimised.