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  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, Fifth Annual Report, Volume I

  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals

  In the U.S., the production of industrial chemicals is a $400 billion-plus enterprise that impacts all aspects of society from personal care products to building materials. Unfortunately, this vital industry is not self-sustaining; its long-term future is predicated on transitioning from current nonrenewable, petroleum feedstocks to renewable biobased feedstocks. The development of conversion technologies needed to facilitate this transition is the focus of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC).

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  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, Fifth Annual Report, Volume II

  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals

  In the U.S., the production of industrial chemicals is a $400 billion-plus enterprise that impacts all aspects of society from personal care products to building materials. Unfortunately, this vital industry is not self-sustaining; its long-term future is predicated on transitioning from current nonrenewable, petroleum feedstocks to renewable biobased feedstocks. The development of conversion technologies needed to facilitate this transition is the focus of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC).

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  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, Fourth Annual Report, Volume I

  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals

  In the U.S., the production of industrial chemicals is a $400 billion-plus enterprise that impacts all aspects of society from personal care products to building materials. Unfortunately, this vital industry is not self-sustaining; its long-term future is predicated on transitioning from current nonrenewable, petroleum feedstocks to renewable biobased feedstocks. The development of conversion technologies needed to facilitate this transition is the focus of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC).

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  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, Fourth Annual Report, Volume II

  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals

  In the U.S., the production of industrial chemicals is a $400 billion-plus enterprise that impacts all aspects of society from personal care products to building materials. Unfortunately, this vital industry is not self-sustaining; its long-term future is predicated on transitioning from current nonrenewable, petroleum feedstocks to renewable biobased feedstocks. The development of conversion technologies needed to facilitate this transition is the focus of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC).

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  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, Third Year Renewal Proposal, Volume I

  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals

  hnology and the academic and industrial partnership needed to transition from the current petroleumbased chemical industry to a renewable carbon-based industry. The commodity chemical industry that is the focus of the center is critically important to many aspects of society. Yet the current industry, which produces greater than 300 billion lbs/year of product in the U.S., is intrinsically unsustainable due to the non-renewable nature of its feedstock. CBiRC will provide a novel environment for the research, training and education of a new cadre of engineers and scientists that, in turn, will generate a new paradigm for optimizing the transition to a biorenewable chemical industry. The unique focus of CBiRC will be exploiting the integration of biocatalytic and chemical catalytic technologies to efficiently produce biorenewable chemicals. CBiRC will develop a new paradigm for producing biorenewable platform chemicals based upon the combinatorial metabolic processes of the polyketide/fatty acid biosynthetic pathway. Key biocatalysts from this pathway will be incorporated into microbial host systems to produce a range of polyketide/fatty acid-based platform chemicals. These platform chemicals will then be converted to final chemical products using chemical catalysts specifically designed for their selective conversion. By integrating biocatalysis and chemical catalysis, CBiRC will create a consolidated technological framework that can be used to produce a broad array of biorenewable chemicals such as dienes, α-olefins and diacids. CBiRC brings together biocatalyst and chemical catalyst researchers with extensive experience in converting biobased feedstocks and connects them with the industrial/ innovation partners from the petrochemical, agricultural processing, chemical catalysis, biocatalysis, process licensor, and industrial chemical utilization commercial sectors for successful technology translation.

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  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, Third Year Renewal Proposal, Volume II

  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals

  In the U.S., the production of industrial chemicals is a $400 billion-plus enterprise that impacts all aspects of society from personal care products to building materials. Unfortunately, this vital industry is not self-sustaining; its long-term future is predicated on transitioning from current nonrenewable, petroleum feedstocks to renewable biobased feedstocks. The development of conversion technologies needed to facilitate this transition is the focus of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC).

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  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, Second Annual Report, Volume I

  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals

  In the U.S., the production of industrial chemicals is a $400 billion-plus enterprise that impacts all aspects of society from personal care products to building materials. Unfortunately, this vital industry is not self-sustaining; its long-term future is predicated on transitioning from current nonrenewable, petroleum feedstocks to renewable biobased feedstocks. The development of conversion technologies needed to facilitate this transition is the focus of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC).

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  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, Second Annual Report, Volume II

  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals

  In the U.S., the production of industrial chemicals is a $400 billion-plus enterprise that impacts all aspects of society from personal care products to building materials. Unfortunately, this vital industry is not self-sustaining; its long-term future is predicated on transitioning from current nonrenewable, petroleum feedstocks to renewable biobased feedstocks. The development of conversion technologies needed to facilitate this transition is the focus of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC).

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  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, First Annual Report, Volume I

  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals

  CBiRC began operation on September 1, 2008, so this first report represents the initial six months of center operation. The center infrastructure has been established and all key administrative and administrative support positions have been filled. The research projects have been initiated and primarily staffed, although some additional graduate students will begin in the Fall. Our education programs will commence during the Summer, 2009. We have initiated a number of exciting projects in the Learning, Discovery, and Research Infrastructure areas, as summarized below.

  • Learning: Initiated RET and REU programs, which include unique interactions with Minority-Serving Institutions and collaborative efforts with the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.
  • Discovery: Novel methylketone synthase elucidation; cloned methylketone synthase gene into higher copy number E. coli plasmid; enhanced niobia hydrothermal stability through silica incorporation.
  • Research Infrastructure: Construction of the Biorenewables Research Laboratory (BRL) at Iowa State University, which will be the administrative home and research focal point for CBiRC, has commenced.

  These projects are expected to yield deliverables in the upcoming year that will provide specific highlights in the next annual report.

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  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, First Annual Report, Volume II

  NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals

  CBiRC began operation on September 1, 2008, so this first report represents the initial six months of center operation. The center infrastructure has been established and all key administrative and administrative support positions have been filled. The research projects have been initiated and primarily staffed, although some additional graduate students will begin in the Fall. Our education programs will commence during the Summer, 2009. We have initiated a number of exciting projects in the Learning, Discovery, and Research Infrastructure areas, as summarized below.

  • Learning: Initiated RET and REU programs, which include unique interactions with Minority-Serving Institutions and collaborative efforts with the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.
  • Discovery: Novel methylketone synthase elucidation; cloned methylketone synthase gene into higher copy number E. coli plasmid; enhanced niobia hydrothermal stability through silica incorporation.
  • Research Infrastructure: Construction of the Biorenewables Research Laboratory (BRL) at Iowa State University, which will be the administrative home and research focal point for CBiRC, has commenced.

  These projects are expected to yield deliverables in the upcoming year that will provide specific highlights in the next annual report.