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The improved production of numerous biochemicals, including butyric acid, is now a step closer following a comprehensive analysis of the Gram-positive, anaerobic spore-forming bacteria Clostridium tyrobutyricum . The study included the sequencing of the bacteria’s genome, opening the door for exploration into ways that the bacteria can be engineered to allow for improved biochemical production.

As the online journal Controlled Environments reports, “The team adopted a genoproteomic approach, combining genomics and proteomics, to investigate the metabolic features of C. tyrobutyricum. [Whereby] The expression of various metabolic genes, including those involved in butyrate formation, was analyzed using the ‘shotgun’ proteome approach.”

Prior to this research, little was known about the genotypic and metabolic traits of Clostridium tyrobutyricum, even though it had long been considered a potential tool for large scale biochemical production. Given the advantages that the bacteria’s metabolism has over its alternatives the study is a key step towards improved biochemical production and more economical biofuels.

The research was based at the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) whose website explained the inherent advantages of the bacteria, stating, “To date, the bio-based production of 1-butanol, a next-generation biofuel, has relied on several clostridial hosts including C. acetobutylicum and C. beijerinckii. However, these organisms have a low tolerance against 1-butanol even though they are naturally capable of producing it. C. tyrobutyricum cannot produce 1-butanol itself, but has a higher 1-butanol-tolerance and rapid uptake of monosaccharides, compared to those two species.”

By identifying the genes involved in the central metabolism of C. tyrobutyricum the study will accelerate research into how the bacterium can be engineered to replace traditional bacterial hosts in the production of butyric acid and 1-butanol.

When discussing the significance of the study, lead researcher, Professor Sang Yup Lee explained how, “The unique metabolic features and energy conservation mechanisms of C. tyrobutyricum can be employed in the various microbial hosts we have previously developed to further improve their productivity and yield. Moreover, findings on C. tyrobutyricum revealed by this study will be the first step to directly engineer this bacterium.”

You can listen to Prof Lee’s five minute talk on the topic of ‘Bio-based materials that replace petroleum-based materials’ at the World Economic Forum on YouTube here.

The title of the research paper is ‘Deciphering Clostridium tyrobutyricum Metabolism Based on the Who-Genome Sequence and Proteome Analyses’, which has been published in the online open access journal of the American Society for Microbiology ‘MBio’ (DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00743-16). The journal also acknowledged the importance of the discovery, stating, “Bio-based production of chemicals from renewable biomass has become increasingly important due to our concerns on climate change and other environmental problems. C. tyrobutyricum has been used for efficient butyric acid production. In order to further increase the performance and expand the capabilities of this strain toward production of other chemicals, metabolic engineering needs to be performed. For this, better understanding on the metabolic and physiological characteristics of this bacterium at the genome level is needed. This work reporting the results of complete genomic and proteomic analyses together with new insights on butyric acid biosynthetic pathway and energy conservation will allow development of strategies for metabolic engineering of C. tyrobutyricum for the bio-based production of various chemicals in addition to butyric acid.”

With the chemical industry’s continued reliance on fossil fuels as both a chemical feedstock and as an energy source there is a growing need for bio-based chemical production. A full understanding of the make-up and metabolic processes of key-bacteria is vital if the biochemical industry is to have a chance at replacing more traditional chemical feedstock sources.

Underlining this point is Director Jin-Woo Kim at the Platform Technology Division of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea, who oversees the Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Change, who praised the research, saying, “Over the years, Professor Lee’s team has researched the development of a bio-refinery system to produce natural and non-natural chemicals with the systems metabolic engineering of microorganisms. They were able to design strategies for the development of diverse industrial microbial strains to produce useful chemicals from inedible biomass-based carbon dioxide fixation. We believe the efficient production of butyric acid using a metabolic engineering approach will play an important role in the establishment of a bioprocess for chemical production.”

If he is correct, then maybe this bacterium will be the breakthrough for more affordable industrial chemical feedstock for everybody.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Photo credit: YouTube

Concrete is one of the world’s necessary evils. It is versatile, strong, relatively inexpensive, easy to apply, easy to make, sets quickly and potentially lasts for thousands of years. However, in its most widely-used form, it is a non-sustainable, one-time use, high-energy product with a large carbon footprint.

But with its discovery made in ancient times, it is “… a surprisingly simple material” as the Guardian newspaper reported in March 2016, “usually made from approximately 10% Portland cement, 3% supplementary cementitious inclusion (for example fly ash or ground granulated blast furnace slag), 80% aggregates (such as gravel and sand), and 7% water.” And yet as the report explains, it has a high impact on the planet, as, “…nearly every aspect of its production – from mining and transporting the raw materials, to heating them to over 1,400°C (often using fossil-fuel-based energy) in a kiln, and the subsequent chemical process of turning limestone into small rocks of cement called clinker – releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide.”

The addition of waste by-products such as fly ash from coal combustion or blast furnace slag (from iron manufacturing) already plays a part in lowering concrete’s environmental impact. According to the specialist website, greenconcreteinfo, “Use of such by-products in concrete prevents 15 million metric tons a year of these waste materials from entering landfills. [Plus] Utilizing these ‘supplemental cementitious materials’ as a replacement for cement improves the strength and durability of concrete and also further reduces the CO₂ embodied in concrete by as much as 70%, with typical values ranging from 15% to 40%.”

But now chemical engineers are looking at more radical ways to both strengthen concrete (so that less is needed), whilst using more sustainable feedstock. For example, the 2015 winner of the ‘Manufacturing, Construction and Innovation’ prize of the ‘Australian Innovation Challenge’ was Shi Yin, a PhD student at James Cook University, who under the supervision of  Dr. Rabin Tuladhar, has developed an improved concrete made from recycled industrial plastic waste. As Dr Tuladhar explained to the university website, “We’ve produced recycled polypropylene fibres from industrial plastic wastes. With our improved melt spinning and hot drawing process we now have plastic fibres strong enough to replace steel mesh in concrete footpaths.” He said, “Using recycled plastic, we were able to get more than a 90 per cent saving on CO₂ emissions and fossil fuel usage compared to using the traditional steel mesh reinforcing. The recycled plastic also has obvious environmental advantages over using virgin plastic fibres.”

Use of recycled plastic fibres in concrete eliminates the need for steel mesh and saves significant amounts of CO₂ associated with steel production. Comprehensive life cycle assessment shows the production of recycled plastic fibre produces 90% less CO₂ and eutrophication (contamination of water bodies with nutrients) compared to the equivalent steel.

But there are other techniques underway to lower concrete’s environmental impact, as listed in the Cement Technology Roadmap produced by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the International Energy Agency. A roadmap that outlines the following concrete improvements;

“Novacem is based on magnesium silicates (MgO) rather than limestone (calcium carbonate) as is used in Ordinary Portland Cement. Global reserves of magnesium silicates are estimated to be large, but these are not uniformly distributed and processing would be required before use. The company’s technology converts magnesium silicates into magnesium oxide using a low-carbon, low temperature process, and then adds mineral additives that accelerate strength development and CO₂ absorption. This offers the prospect of carbon-negative cement.

Calera is a mixture of calcium and magnesium carbonates, and calcium and magnesium hydroxides. Its production process involves bringing sea-water, brackish water or brine into contact with the waste heat in power station flue gas, where CO₂ is absorbed, precipitating the carbonate minerals.

Calix’s cement is produced in a reactor by rapid calcination of dolomitic rock in superheated steam. The CO₂ emissions can be captured using a separate CO₂ scrubbing system.”

Whilst these developments are to be applauded, researchers at MiT are taking the study of concrete to the next level. Indeed, given the impact that concrete has on our planet, both good and bad, MiT has set up the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) to be better placed to understand what this amazing material does.

One part of this analysis involves examining the material at its smallest, molecular level, using the MIT-CNRS laboratory called MultiScale Material Science for Energy and Environment, hosted at MIT by the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI).

The reason behind this is simple, as Prof Franz-Josef Ulm explained to the university website, “[Previous researchers] didn’t go to the very small scale to see what holds it [concrete] together — and without that knowledge, you can’t modify it.”

As the MiT website reports, “An MIT-led team has defined the nanoscale forces that control how particles pack together during the formation of cement ‘paste’ the material that holds together concrete and causes that ubiquitous construction material to be a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. By controlling those forces, the researchers will now be able to modify the microstructure of the hardened cement paste, reducing pores and other sources of weakness to make concrete stronger, stiffer, more fracture-resistant, and longer-lasting.”

With such nanoscale analysis, the study, “… defined the forces that control how particles space out relative to one another as cement hydrate forms. The result is an algorithm that mimics the precipitation process, particle by particle. By constantly tracking the forces among the particles already present, the algorithm calculates the most likely position for each new one — a position that will move the system toward equilibrium. It thus adds more and more particles of varying sizes until the space is filled and the precipitation process stops.”

The diagrams show the structure of cement hydrate as determined by the researchers’ model, which calculates the positions of particles based on particle-to-particle forces. Each simulation box is about 600 nanometers wide. The packing fraction (the fraction of the box occupied by particles) is assumed to be 0.35 in the left diagram and 0.52 in the right one.

With an understanding of what makes concrete work, the team has begun to work on techniques that will make for cheaper, greener concrete. For example, the simplest way to lower its environmental impact is to recycle it. But today’s methods of recycling concrete generally involve cutting it up and using it in place of gravel in new concrete; an approach that doesn’t reduce the need to manufacture more cement. So the researchers’ idea is to reproduce the cohesive forces they’ve identified in cement hydrate. “If the microtexture is just a consequence of the physical forces between nanometer-sized particles, then we should be able to grind old concrete into fine particles and compress them so that the same force field develops,” says Ulm, “We can make new binder without needing any new cement — a true recycling concept for concrete!”

Another method being researched is how to improve concrete used in making roads that will lower vehicle fuel consumption. As the study explains, “the fuel efficiency of vehicles is significantly affected by the interaction between tires and pavement. Simulations and experiments in the lab … suggest that making concrete surfaces stiffer could reduce vehicle fuel consumption by as much as 3% nationwide, saving energy and reducing emissions.”

The team is also studying the ingredients for concrete to see if its 2,000 year old recipe can be improved. “For example, a promising beginning-of-life approach may be to add another ingredient — perhaps a polymer — to alter the particle-particle interactions and serve as filler for the pore spaces that now form in cement hydrate. The result would be a stronger, more durable concrete for construction and also a high-density, low-porosity cement that would perform well in a variety of applications. For instance, at today’s oil and natural gas wells, cement sheaths are generally placed around drilling pipes to keep gas from escaping.”

As one of the lead researchers, Roland Pellenq, senior research scientist in the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and research director at France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) explains, “A molecule of methane is 500 times smaller than the pores in today’s cement; so filling those voids would help seal the gas in.”

Environmentalists claim that concrete has too big an impact on our planet, and that replacement materials should be found; and for the most part they are correct. Concrete has a negative effect on our environment, as the RSC reports, “The material is used so widely that world cement production now contributes 5% of annual anthropogenic global CO₂ production.”

And yet we continue to use vast amounts of concrete, as the MiT report makes clear, “Each year, the world produces 2.3 cubic yards of concrete for every person on earth, in the process generating more than 10% of all industrial CO₂ emissions. New construction and repairs to existing infrastructure currently require vast amounts of concrete, and consumption is expected to escalate dramatically in the future. “

Consumption is expanding because we need to house our growing, urbanising population. As Pellenq says, “To shelter all the people moving into cities in the next 30 years, we’ll have to build the equivalent of several hundred New York cities. There’s no material up to that task but concrete.”

The challenge that is left for the chemical industry is finding a sustainable version that is still versatile, strong, relatively inexpensive, easy to apply, easy to make, set quickly and potentially lasts for thousands of years that the construction industry demands.

The development and research is coming close to an answer that will satisfy all these requirements, but with the RSC reporting that, “by 2050, concrete use is predicted to reach four times the 1990 level” will it come soon enough?

Photo credit; Directcolors inc, Dr. Rabin Tuladhar, Katerina Ioannidou

People don’t like change; they like routine. They like to sit in the same seat in the weekly meeting, they like to go to the same restaurants, drink the same drinks and many even go on holiday to the same places year after year.

Yet change in the chemical industry is ever present, as companies vie for the latest technology, improved processes and better materials to give them a competitive edge. It is an industry in constant change and flux, where R&D expenditure in 2013 for the EU alone topped €8.4 billion.

Conversely, people like sustainability. It is the buzzword of a decade that has moved on to becoming a full-fledged movement; a political, societal, economic and personal goal. It is a target for business that is nowhere more relevant than in the chemical industry. And if you’re not convinced by this then here is what chemical industry leaders have to say on the topic.

For example, in May 2016, Neil Hawkins, Chief Sustainability Officer at the Dow Chemical Company spoke at the Indian Chemical Council conference, stating that, “We must understand and imbibe the fact that sustainability cannot be a separate pillar of strategy; it is the business strategy. I want you to really think over this and know this sentence is more relevant today than ever.”

While the American Chemical Society states that, “ACS believes that support for research to promote sustainability, green chemistry, and green engineering, combined with incentives for the adoption of sustainable technologies and new regulatory strategies that promote sustainable products and processes, will be instrumental in meeting the challenges of protecting human health and the environment, meeting our societal and energy needs, enhancing national and homeland security, and strengthening the economy.”

Political leaders meanwhile, gave their backing for sustainable policies following the Paris Climate Change agreement of 2015. COP21 lead to the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) to declare that, “Sustainability is an overriding priority for the chemical industry and we can do much to change societal production and consumption patterns. We have to promote resource efficient products. Our industry is a key enabler for the advanced innovative products and services that can deliver sustainable solutions throughout the economy.”

This declaration was supported by Carlos Fadigas (CEO of Braskem), Heinz Haller (Executive Vice President at Dow Chemical), Graham van’t Hoff (Shell Chemicals) and Jean-Pierre Clamadieu (CEO of Solvay) among many others.

Richard Northcote, Chief Sustainability Officer at Covestro, understands the reasons for the drive towards sustainability, stating in a recent interview that, “There will be increasing legislation coming through governments around the world as they strive towards COP21 targets; but there is also a growing global market pull from consumers for more sustainable products. When you add in a growing number of investors aligning their investments with the UN Sustainability agenda, we [the chemical industry] find ourselves in the perfect storm for step change thinking.”

Clearly there is a great deal of impetus in making the change in the chemical industry towards sustainability, but it is harder to achieve sustainability than simply making sweeping declarations. For a chemical company to incorporate the ideal into its culture requires hard work, planning and teamwork.

As Northcote says, “Collaboration is key.” He continues to explain how, “…as an industry we can achieve greater impact by working together to address the issues society and our planet face in the coming years.”

Northcote along with other like-minded R&D experts across the chemical value chain will be discussing the challenges and opportunities that the industry holds at CIEX 2016. He will be speaking on the importance of sustainability. He will question what sustainability goals should be incorporated into companies’ CSR policy, so that they can balance output, quality and safety in the innovation process. He will discuss ways that employers can encourage employees to play a role in achieving sustainability. He hopes to, “… attract forward-thinking change agents who believe that science and technology will play a leading role in addressing the challenges we face. I hope to be informative, perceptive and challenging to the status quo!”

You can join Northcote and 20 senior-level speakers from Fortune 500 companies at CIEX on Sep 28-29 in Frankfurt.  Companies participating at CIEX include Henkel,  L’Oreal, Dow Chemical, BASF, Lonza, Swarovski, Natura, Dupont, Ineos, DSM, McBride and many more!

CIEX is created for R&D and Innovation experts from the consumer, industrial and specialty chemical sectors. By bringing together all players in the chemical value chain, we create a unique platform for participants to learn, exchange ideas and connect with potential partners.

Join us at CIEX 2016 on Sep 28-29 in Frankfurt! Spotchemi readers benefit from 20% OFF!

To register, please visit: http://www.ciex-eu.org  Use Promo code: SPOTC20

Photo credit: CEFIC on Twitter