Improved Process to Create Renewable Chemicals from Plants

A University of Florida research team has developed a method to turn sugarcane bagasse - the crushed-stalk waste product of sugar production - into succinic acid that can be used to make pharmaceuticals, protective coatings, and compostable bags. The process uses no food crops or petroleum as raw materials, compared to most currently produced succinic acid. This research is part of a larger project led by Lonnie Ingram, a distinguished professor in the microbiology and cell science department. Previous accomplishments include genetically engineered E. coli strains that can produce fuel ethanol and ones that make lactic acid, which is used to create biodegradable and recyclable bioplastics. To achieve cost-effective succinic acid production using waste plant materials, the researchers had to make an E. coli strain tolerant to growth-stopping inhibitors. The newly engineered strain, called XW 136, produced more than 30 grams per liter of succinate using sugars derived from sugarcane bagasse.

Transcript

00:00:01 most of our research at the University of Florida has been directed at genetically engineering organisms to make renewable products that can replace petroleum starting with sugar as a substrate for many years we developed these biocatalysts to carry out these conversions for the past few years we've been working to simplify the process that uses our bio catalysts and other

00:00:24 bio catalyst to convert woody material in death on all these processes involve using enzymes to break down the wood and the soluble sugars and then fermenting those sugars into organic acids or into ethanol most of our work began in the genetics area but then we moved into the process area using a unit operations pilot plant and Fraser Rogers Hall this allowed us to develop the processes and

00:00:51 optimize processes as individual steps to actually put these together we need an integrated plan a somewhat larger plant and that's the plant that's being developed on perry that's has been constructed in perry for our use but this should give us real world data at concentrations and flow rates that are large enough to be a predictor for full-scale operation final goal is

00:01:17 full-scale ethanol plants in Florida I'd like to see us attract more industry into Florida I'd like to see those industries invest not only in full-scale production plants but also to set up R&D centers and take advantage of the unique facilities in Perry and at the University