21st Century Technologies for Advancing Bio-manufacturing

Cost pressures in today’s global and competitive market and operation in a societal framework that is conscious about environmental impacts and sustainability require the adaptation of new chemical manufacturing practices. Bio-manufacturing processes utilize enzymes that catalyze reactions under benign conditions, resulting in cleaner and more resource-efficient processes. However, shifting manufacturing of chemicals and materials from petroleum-derived chemical synthesis to greener and environmentally friendly bio-manufacturing processes that can operate at the same scale and with comparable cost-margins is challenging. A major bottleneck is the development of innovative technologies for robust, cost-efficient and high-yielding execution of a series of enzyme rather than chemically catalyzed reactions that convert one or more molecules into a desired product. This project aims to seed the formation of a research cluster in advanced bio-manufacturing, generate data for new external funding, establish new and strengthen existing international collaborations, and promote new training activities in this field.