The objective is to develop a base cyanobacterial cell factory for terpene precursors that can be the development platform for commercial terpene production with cyanobacteria. Trends such as growth in world population, higher energy and food demand, depletion of raw materials and global warming make it necessary to implement breakthrough bio-based production technologies. A breakthrough is the use of genetically engineered cyanobacteria that turn CO2 directly and efficiently into predetermined products when exposed to light. This CO2-consuming process is based on circular economy principles and independent of first generation (food crop) feedstocks. A promising group of products for cyano-based production are terpenes and terpenoids. These compounds are of interest to chemical industry due to their potential of producing platform chemicals that are now obtained from fossil fuels. Terpenes have an advantage over other biobased commodities because they are drop-in chemicals that can be processed in much the same manner as crude oil. Despite potential uses in the medicine, food and fragrance sectors, the natural abundance of terpenes is too low for industrial production. Many approaches have been sought to engineer microbial strains capable of producing terpenoids in high yields. Up to now these do not result in increased production rates to the high levels needed. The project addresses this problem by producing a cyanobacterial strain capable of synthesizing high-levels of cell metabolite building blocks as an avenue towards the terpene production. The SME host, together with industrial partners, develops and markets cyano-based production technology. The fellow’s work will strengthen this and will give him the experience to establish a career in industrial R&D and entrepreneurship. A research and training program with ample industrial and academic interaction, supported by dissemination and communication actions, has been set up to realise this impact.

The demand for plastic packaging is predicted to triple to >285 million tons by 2050, bringing on well-recognized problems around the use of fossil feedstocks. Biodegradable bioplastics, especially polylactic acid (PLA), offer a promising solution to replace plastic packaging. However, the production of PLA currently depends mainly on food crops as key feedstock and requires significant amounts of agricultural land and fresh water. There is a urgent need for innovative bioplastic production technologies that do not take over our land, water and food production system. Dutch applicant Photanol leverages a proprietary technology to produce lactic acid, the key ingredient for PLA, directly out of CO2 and sunlight. Its revolutionary platform technology is based on the combination of optimized bacterial strains and tailor-made photo-bioreactors, enabling direct conversion of the limitless available CO2 feedstock into lactic acid and a production efficacy that is 7x higher than crop plants. In the process, 1.6 tonnes CO2 are captured per ton lactic acid and 24x less land and 25x water are used compared to current methods. Photanol is led by experienced biotech entrepreneurs, chemical industry representatives and scientific leaders. The award-winning biotech SME has reached important up-scaling milestones obtaining permits and successful construction and operation of a first-of-a-kind outside pilot plant. As next step, Photanol aims to construct a full commercial production plant (operational in 2024, with an expected annual gross profit of €75 million). This project will address all technical, operational, economic and financial barriers before scale-up to commercial size. The project will allow Photanol to demonstrate the commercial potential of its technology and expand the company from 21 to >70 FTE by 2024. Ultimately, Photanol aims to become a key enabler of a revolution in the chemical industry that will decouple any kind of chemical from fossil feedstocks.

The ENGICOIN proposal aims at the development, from TRL3 to TRL5, of three new microbial factories (MFs), integrated in an organic waste anaerobic digestion (AD) platform, based on engineered strains exploiting CO2 sources and renewable solar radiation or H2 for the production of value-added chemicals, namely: MF.1) the cyanobacteria Synechocystis to produce lactic acid from either biogas combustion flue gases (CO2 concentration ~ 15%) or pure and costless CO2 streams from biogas-to-biomethane purification. MF.2) the aerobic and toxic metal tolerant Ralstonia eutropha to produce PHA bioplastics from biogas combustion flue gases and complementary carbon sources derived from the AD digestate. MF.3) the anaerobic Acetobacterium woodii to produce acetone from the CO2 stream from biogas-to-biomethane purification. High process integration will be guaranteed by taking advantage of low-grade heat sources (e.g. from cogenerative biogas-fired engine or an tailored PEM electrolyser), exploitable side gas streams (e.g. O2 from electrolysis, CO2 from biomethane purification), low-price electricity produced during night-time by a biogas-fired-engine cogeneration unit or even intensified operation conditions (e.g. up to 10 bars pressure for the anaerobic acetone production bioreactor; led-integrated photo-bioreactor). This is an essential feature, alongside with the high conversion rates enabled by synthetic and systems biology on the above microorganisms, to achieve competitive selling prices for the key target products (1.45 €/kg for lactic acid; 3.5 €/kg for PHA; 1 €/kg for acetone). Notwithstading the key application platform (anaerobic biorefinery based on organic wastes) the innovative production processes developed have a great exploitation potential in other application contexts: flue gases from different combustion appliances (e.g. cement kilns), alcoholic fermentation CO2 streams (e.g. lignocelluosic biorefineries, breweries), etc.