Biocatalysis

“I foresee the day when physiological chemistry will not only make use of the natural enzymes as agents, but when it will also prepare synthetic ferments for its purposes.”

Emil Fischer, Nobel Lecture, 1902

Biodiesel production converts triglyceride oils into fatty acid methyl esters, generating vast amounts of glycerine as a byproduict. The enormous glut of glycerine has depressed the market price to near zero.  Crude glycerine prices have dropped as low as $0.02 per pound last year before recovering to $0.06 – $0.10 per pound. But a small company in Virginia called Xcel Plus has found a use for all that glycerine byproduct–make it into fuel.

The Xcel Plus process cracks glycerine into two fuels, one of which (at around 50 percent by weight) is Glyclene and is suitable for turbine engines for power generation. 

The potential to convert crude glycerine to fuel has the potential to generate a profit stream either to refiners such as Xcel Plus, or to biodiesel producers in the form of higher prices for crude glycerine. Xcel Plus estimated that there is more than 150,000 tons of crude glycerine produced by biodiesel operations in the US. Xcel Plus said in January that it had contracts for up to 200 million gallons of GlyClene.

An Oklahoma trucker has been charged with dumping about 500 gallons of ethanol in a ditch alongside U.S. 60, according to Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster’s office. Read the story here.

Instead of attempting to convert algae directly into ethanol or biodiesel, this startup is trying to create green crude that could be fed directly through the nation’s current refinery system. Calling itself a mini-Manhattan project, LiveFuels is an alliance of labs and scientists with the common goal of generating 1000 gallons or more of oil per acre of land dedicated to growing algae. National lab Sandia oversees the alliance of various scientists and labs with expertise in process engineering, bioscience, and biotechnology. The Menlo Park, Calif-based startup uses open-pond algae bioreactors and plans to commercialize its technology by 2010. With the tag-line and trademark “Pond to Pump,” LiveFuels’ investors include the Quercus Trust (David Gelbaum’s well-known environmental funding group) and Sandia National Labs. The web site is clunky looking and is in dire need of updating. It’s hard to say if that is because all the money goes to the science (which would be a good thing), or if there isn’t much money.

Frances Arnold’s group at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and gene-synthesis company DNA2.0 have reported the construction of 15 new highly stable fungal enzyme catalysts that efficiently break down cellulose into sugars at high temperatures. Previously, fewer than 10 such fungal cellobiohydrolase II enzymes were known. In addition to their remarkable stabilities, Arnold’s enzymes degrade cellulose over a wide range of conditions.

Thermostability is a requirement of efficient cellulases, because at higher temperatures–say, 70 or even 80 degrees Celsius–chemical reactions are more rapid. In addition, cellulose swells at higher temperatures, which makes it easier to break down. Unfortunately, the known cellulases from nature typically won’t function at temperatures higher than about 50 degrees Celsius.

“Enzymes that are highly thermostable also tend to last for a long time, even at lower temperatures,” Arnold says. “And, longer-lasting enzymes break down more cellulose, leading to lower cost.”

“This is a really nice demonstration of the power of synthetic biology,” Arnold says. “You can rapidly generate novel, interesting biological materials in the laboratory, and you don’t have to rely on what you find in nature. We just emailed DNA2.0 sequences based on what we pulled out of a database and our recombination design, and they synthesized the DNA. We never had to go to any organism to get them. We never touched a fungus.”

See the full press release here.

Launched in May 2007, Sapphire Energy is a relative youngster. In just a short span of time Sapphire has established itself as on of the top algae companies to be watching, claiming to have invented a whole new industry category called Green Crude. As young as the company is, Sapphire has already forged partnerships with DOE, University of California San Diego, Scripps, and the University of Tulsa. The main product focus is bio-gasoline produced by engineered algae, spawning the tag-line “Not ethanol, not biodiesel. Renewable gasoline.”  Sapphire wants to produce a bio-gasoline that is as close to petroleum-derived gasoline as possible, requiring no changes in infrastructure and no retooling of engines.

According to the company, the second generation of biofuels that includes ethanol and biodiesel will not meaningfully impact our petroleum needs given the large amount of agricultural land co-opted, the water and fertilizer needed, and the upward pressure these fuels have on food prices. Reading through the company’s web site one gets the feeling that Sapphire wants you to believe that they are going to change the world. However, the company is still somewhat virtual. Research and development is carried out at two laboratories in San Diego, California and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Major funding has been provided by ARCH Ventures, Venrock, Wellcome Trust, Cascade LLC (aka Bill Gates of Microsoft fame and fortune), so the company does not seem to be short of much-needed cash.

Keep watching Sapphire. The company talks big. Let’s see if they can deliver big.

Algae have been touted as one of the Next Big Things in biofuels. The high oil content of some algal strains provide a potentially inexpensive source of oil that can be processed into biodiesel, and pathway engineering in algae could lead to the production of other fuel-like compounds as well. But it is the minimal growth requirements for algae that provide the real attraction of algae as a source of biofuels. Algae can grow using carbon dioxide from the air as a carbon source and sunlight as its energy source. Thus, cultivating algae could potentially cost next to nothing, and actually consume carbon dioxide. So then, why is Solazyme trying to produce biofuels by growing algae on sugar in the dark? Good question! Solazyme brushes this question aside with the glib, inconclusive response of “it’s more efficient this way.” OK, we’ll see.

Solazyme is not publicity shy. The company cranks out press releases at a rate of about one per month. The web site lists many different TV shows and magazine articles in which the company has been mentioned (favorably, of course). Executives actually attended the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 with a short film on algae-derived biodeisel that you can view on the company web site. I don’t know if all that PR advanced the technology platform very far, but it probably helped Solazyme raise money. The company has raised $70 million since inception, including $45 million is a round closed in August 2008, right before the markets tanked and financing dried up. This was very fortuitous timing for the company. Solazyme has used those funds to expand its R & D team and hire scientists from companies that include Genencor and Novozymes.

What about the technology? The Solazyme platform derives from technology to manipulate algal pathways, and the company claims that it will produce a range of useful compounds, including fuels, nutraceuticals and specialty chemicals. In June 2008 Solazyme announced that it had made the first algal-based renewable diesel to pass American Society for Testing and Materials D-975 specifications. Chevron has signed on to collaborate with Solazyme on developing and commercializing this product. Patent applications describe the production of chemicals that range from hydrogen to biodiesel to cholesterol reducers and compounds that lubricate your joints and improve the appearance of your skin. Solazyme has painted an incredible picture of its future. Economics are not yet proven, however, so we will be monitoring the progress closely. If the company delivers on just some of its promise, it will be quite successful. 

Onyx Scientific Ltd, Cyprotex Discovery Ltd and Glytech, a University of York Centre for Novel Agricultural Products spin-out, have formed a unique 3-way collaboration to offer new drug metabolite identification and synthesis services to the pharmaceutical industry.
All 3 organisations contribute separate skills needed in performing this service. Onyx provides synthetic and analytical chemistry services; Cyprotex contributes in vitro screening services, metabolite profiling and identification expertise; Glytech supplies proprietary enzyme screening and bioprocessing skills providing the capability to rapidly make novel metabolite structures.

According to the companies, no single entity in the world is capable of matching this novel approach. That statement sounds a bit too strong to me, but it does add competition to a field that includes Albany Molecular Research (AMRI), Cypex, Xenotech, SPI-BIO (France) and Codexis (via BioCatalytics).

Modification of photosynthesis in green microalgae may permit the generation of biofuels in a very different way. Why Algae? Because these microorganisms naturally accumulate oil, have a fast rate of growth (ever seen pond scum in the summer?), grow in hot conditions and can use land not otherwise usable for food crops. Even better, algae are photosynthetic, and can grow on CO₂ and sunlight as raw materials. At least, that is the theory behind why algae may be a source of clean, renewable and economically viable biofuels. However, specific biological problems associated with a sustained, high yield photosynthetic production of algal biofuels remain to be addressed. Engineering algae is not as easy as yeast or simple bacteria. In fact, as you will see in upcoming profiles, some algae companies have abandoned the idea of photosynthesis entirely, and grow their algae on sugar in the dark! In that case, the algae are going head to head with yeast, and that makes for tough competition. The next group of companies are all staking their future on algae as The Next Big Thing in fuels.

Valero Energy will buy seven ethanol plants from VeraSun Energy for $477 million, the largest biofuel buyout in terms of production capacity. VeraSun, the country’s second-largest ethanol producer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. On Wednesday, a Delaware bankruptcy court approved the sale.

We can expect to see more of this as would be ethanol producers are unable to obtain funding and go Chapter 11.