Biosynthesis of long-chain dicarboxylic acid monomers from renewable resources. Final technical report

摘要

Long-chain aliphatic alpha omega dicarboxylic, acids (diacids) are used in a wide variety of plastics and other chemical applications. Long-chain diacids are almost exclusively produced by chemical conversion processes that suffer a number of disadvantages, including limitations in the range of products, use of multi-step conversion processes, dependence on non-renewable feedstocks, and generation of unwanted and hazardous byproducts. Biotechnology offers an innovative way to overcome the limitations and disadvantages of the chemical processes to make diacids. Yeast biocatalyst are able to convert long-chain fatty acids, which are readily available from renewable agricultural products, directly to long-chain diacids. The biocatalyst can produce a variety of diacid products and produces no hazardous byproducts. However, development efforts are needed to realize the potential of this biosynthetic approach to the production of long-chain diacids. The objective of this program was to develop and demonstrate key biocatalyst and bioprocess technology to produce cost-competitive long-chain diacids from agricultural products, and to demonstrate the suitability of the diacids as comonomers in a high melt flow polymer application.