Genomatica made significant progress in harnessing cellulosic biomass for commercial production of high-quality chemicals rather than just fuels, setting the stage to increase the range of feedstock choices for making chemicals using biotechnology, according to the company. Through advances in strain engineering and process design, Genomatica developed clear guidance for biomass pretreatment technology developers to enable their technologies to work better with commercial bioprocesses for chemicals.
An extended series of trials by Genomatica reportedly confirms major improvements in process performance and the qualification of multiple types of biomass sugars as suitable feedstock. The results advance the prospects for economical production of polymer-grade chemicals from biomass as pre-treatment technologies mature toward reaching their cost targets.
As part of the current work, Genomatica developed a 'sugar specification' for biomass pretreatment technologies to produce sugars compatible with commercially-proven GENO processes; assessed 10 technologies against that standard; and demonstrated that at least four can currently produce sugars suitable for commercial production of chemicals from a quality standpoint.
Technical details are available in a March 2015 presentation and June 2015 report. Genomatica's work was supported in part by grant DE-EE0005002 from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO).
For more information, visit: www.genomatica.com
