AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition
    Manufacturing Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session MS+AS+BA+BI+PS+TF-TuM

Invited Paper MS+AS+BA+BI+PS+TF-TuM11
Opportunities and Challenges in the Biobased Products Manufacturing

Tuesday, October 29, 2013, 11:20 am, Room 202 B

Session: IPF 2013-Manufacturing Challenges for Emerging Technologies: IV. Manufacturing Challenges: The Life Sciences
Presenter: J. Flatt, Synthetic Genomics
Authors: J. Flatt, Synthetic Genomics
S. Bailey, Synthetic Genomics
S. Bower, Synthetic Genomics
D. Gibson, Synthetic Genomics
S. Farah, Synthetic Genomics
J. Butler, Synthetic Genomics
J. Hannon, Synthetic Genomics
Correspondent: Click to Email
Biobased production of life’s necessities, including food, fuels, chemicals and medicines provides a foundation for sustainable and geographically distributed manufacturing processes. Biobased manufacturing utilizes photosynthetic processes directly through conversion of carbon dioxide and light energy or indirectly through conversion of renewable biomass feedstocks to products. Biological cells (biocatalysts) are the operating systems for these biobased manufacturing processes. Rapid advances in synthetic biology enable the engineering of biocatalysts which can produce a broader range of products than previously possible, at high yields and productivities necessary for achievement of desired economics. Improvements in biocatalysts are achieved through modifications of DNA, which is the software of living systems. Significant advances in the costs, fidelity and speed of DNA synthesis, along with improving understanding of gene function and regulation is enabling the more rapid development of biocatalysts which achieve required performance for commercially viable manufacturing processes. The current state of the art of synthetic biology and technology trends which will impact future development of biobased processes will be discussed. Additional market-specific and process-specific challenges exist, and will be discussed in context of the specific examples taken from manufacture of synthetic vaccines, biobased chemicals and fuels. Recently, Novartis and Synthetic Genomics demonstrated the ability to successfully produce vaccines for prevention of seasonal influenza using synthetic DNA constructs, which significantly reduces the time from influenza strain identification to production of the vaccine seed. Development of this revolutionary process required significant improvement of the fidelity of DNA synthesis and assembly, which provides insight into the challenge of engineering more complex biocatalysts. On the other end of the spectrum, phototrophic microalgae have great long-term potential to provide a sustainable and alternative source of food and liquid transportation fuels. Phototrophic microalgae can be cultivated using non-potable water on non-arable land. Techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) both suggest that significant improvements in biocatalyst productivity and capital cost reduction will be required to achieve competitive economics. Maximum observed algal biomass productivities in the range of 20 to 25 g/m2/day are far lower than generally-agreed upon theoretically-achievable productivities based upon the actual solar energy available. Improvement of photosynthetic efficiency in mass culture is required for economical algal-based processes. Limited availability of light in mass culture also limits the maximum achievable cell density, which results in increased downstream processing costs. The challenges of “dilute solution economics” associated with commercial algae production and potential biological and engineering solutions will be discussed.