Biotechnology that improves production while reducing pollution and costs is a win for sustainability. Labconscious and New England Biolabs® recently held a Go Green Symposium for biologists and sustainability professionals, including several talks on conserving resources in life science. MIT Professor Kristala L.J. Prather presented a compelling account of how bacteria engineered to perform chemical reactions are used in industry. It was a great lesson on systemic benefits from cell-based production of chemicals.
value-added chemicals made with engineered E.coli
Scientists can make outsized contributions to conserving natural resources by greening laboratory operations or applying their expertise to solving society-wide sustainability challenges. Kristala Prather has done both. Professor Prather is the Arthur D. Little Professor and Department Head in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. She is a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Her lab has integrated sustainability lab practices for many years and was awarded a gold certification by the MIT Environment, Health, and Safety Office. Research in the Prather lab centers on the design and assembly of recombinant microorganisms to produce small molecules and novel approaches to bioprocess design. The work involves constructing novel biosynthetic pathways for E.coli to produce specific compounds and developing engineered enzymes and enhanced metabolic regulation systems to increase biosynthesis capacity to convert feedstocks into bulk chemicals. Prather summarized her group’s approach, “We apply the same principles chemists use to synthesize new molecules, towards designing new biological systems that can synthesize new molecules....We see cells as a way to transform how we access the materials we need.”
“We apply the same principles chemists use to synthesize new molecules, towards designing new biological systems that can synthesize new molecules....We see cells as a way to transform how we access the materials that we need.”
In her concise talk at the Go Green Symposium, Prather shared several examples of MIT collaborations for cell-based sustainability solutions. These included the production of high value chemicals from biomass by Kalion Inc., a company Prather cofounded, cereal crop-associated nitrogen-fixing bacteria used by farmers, from Pivot Bio™, cofounded by MIT biological engineering department head, Professor Chris Voight, and ongoing projects to produce biobased monomers and screening systems to increase the predictability of polymer biodegradation in natural environments.
Glucaric acid production by Kalion, Inc. exemplified how projects can coalesce into unexpected benefits. Phosphates are used in cooling towers at manufacturing facilities to balance water pH and prevent hard mineral scale on high heat transfer surfaces. Unfortunately, when phosphate-treated water is released into the environment, it causes algae blooms that produce toxins and oxygen-depleted “dead zones”. This effect caused phosphate bans for consumer detergents. Glucaric acid is a powerful corrosion inhibitor that can be used instead of phosphates to lower the energy costs of running cooling towers and prevent environmental damage. Highly pure glucaric acid can be produced economically using renewable biomass, with reduced emissions. According to estimates, if cooling towers switched to glucaric acid, 230 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents and $60 billion U.S. dollars would be saved annually. High performance and cost savings can be attained with highly pure, biobased glucaric acid. Notably, there are systemic benefits. Biobased production of glucaric acid does not create the highly polluting waste stream that conventional chemical-based oxidation of glucose does. Gluaric acid is an example of a value-added chemical product that can be produced using biomass waste. It’s an all-around great example of how engineering systems using carbohydrate inputs instead of hydrocarbons can offer global sustainability improvements.
Demand for Biobased Materials is rising
Current market trends are relevant to Professor Prather’s talk on using cells as chemical factories. Biopharmaceutical production is the most established use of cell-based biomanufacturing. Insulin, for example, has been made using E.coli for a long time. Drug, food, textiles, and especially packaging manufacturers are seeking renewable raw materials. Early adopters of E. coli-based chemical production have released products to meet consumer demand. For example, LanzaTech CarbonSmart™ polyester has been used to make clothes and shoes for Zara, H&M Move, Adidas, Lululemon, and more. Automakers, appliance makers, and other sectors are designing biobased resins into their products. At the same time, global fuel needs are rising fast. Petroleum is a finite resource that many regions must import to power their economies. The demand for biofuels is much greater than for biobased materials. The primary market is biodiesel for air, land, and sea transportation. Biodiesel aids compliance with EU fuel emission reduction mandates. The renewable fuel standard mandate is expected to rise in the U.S.A., the leading producer of biofuel. Brazil, another leading producer, has plans to scale up biofuel production to make good use of its sugarcane production and hedge against petrol oil price fluctuations. Asian countries are evolving policies and building up infrastructure to meet the increased demand for biofuel. All this biofuel investment is significant to “value-added” biobased material and chemical production. Oil refineries that transform crude oil into fuel and feedstock for materials are adding biorefinery capabilities. Chemical feedstock production is predicted to expand alongside biorefineries. Whether it is an optimistic outlook or not, it’s been reported that biomass can meet 20% of the carbon demand in chemicals by 2050. Adoption of biobased chemical production feedstocks is the next step for biobased oil refineries. Clever chemical and biological engineers who lower production costs and design biomanufactured molecules that perform better than fossil fuel-based alternatives will accelerate trends. Can you imagine what types of cell-based chemical manufacturing will exist ten years from now?
Coming Soon: More Talks on Conserving Resources in Life Science
The Go Green Symposium was a nice chance to network with people working to make life science greener. You can watch the opening talk, a synopsis of global climate change and emissions from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, in the NEBInspired® Earth Day blog post. Labconscious will release more talks by our other Go Green speakers soon. Until then, happy Earth Day, and thank you for being “labconscious”!
Go Green 2025 Symposium attendees listen to the talk by Professor Prather and network on sustainability in life science at LabCentral.