The period of “biomanufacturing”, wherein microbes, not petroleum, produce chemical merchandise, is one step nearer. A KAIST analysis workforce has analyzed the important thing challenges limiting the commercialization of biomanufacturing and proposed an AI-driven technique for industrialization.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) introduced on the 14th of July {that a} analysis workforce led by Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has comprehensively analyzed the important thing bottlenecks to commercializing biomanufacturing and proposed an industrialization technique and a roadmap for future progress to deal with them.
Most chemical merchandise at this time — together with plastics, textiles, and pharmaceutical uncooked supplies — are produced from petroleum. But as considerations over carbon emissions and environmental air pollution develop, biomanufacturing, which makes use of microbes to supply chemical substances, is drawing consideration as a next-generation manufacturing know-how. Still, scaling up lab-developed applied sciences into economically viable mass manufacturing at precise factories stays a serious problem.
Systems metabolic engineering, a core know-how in biomanufacturing, designs and optimizes microbial metabolic pathways to construct “microbial cell factories” that produce desired chemical substances. But applied sciences that present excessive productiveness within the lab typically carry out worse as soon as moved to industrial settings — productiveness drops, manufacturing prices rise, and lots of fail to attain worth competitiveness, finally failing to commercialize.
The analysis workforce analyzed succinic acid, a bio-based chemical feedstock, and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), a biodegradable plastic, as consultant instances illustrating this “gap between the lab and industry,” typically known as the “valley of death.”
Succinic acid is a key uncooked materials for producing eco-friendly plastics and numerous chemical supplies. The workforce defined that for succinic acid to compete with present petrochemical merchandise, competitiveness relies upon not simply on manufacturing quantity, but in addition on uncooked materials and separation/purification prices, the fermentation course of, and market dimension — all of which have to be weighed collectively. The workforce additionally prompt {that a} phased technique — getting into high-value markets reminiscent of prescription drugs, cosmetics, and meals components first — may very well be a practical resolution.
PHA is a biodegradable plastic that microbes accumulate inside their cells, an eco-friendly materials that breaks down naturally within the setting after use. But PHA is at the moment much less price-competitive than typical plastics on account of excessive manufacturing and restoration prices, and its intrinsic materials properties pose a separate barrier: the archetypal polymer P(3HB) is very crystalline, turns into brittle with age, and has a slim window between its melting and decomposition temperatures, which means PHAs are typically not appropriate as direct “drop-in” replacements.The workforce discovered {that a} phased strategy is required — simplifying the manufacturing course of and first making use of it to high-value fields reminiscent of medical functions and meals packaging earlier than increasing into general-purpose markets.
The workforce predicted that synthetic intelligence will turn into a key to industrializing biomanufacturing going ahead. AI can optimize your entire biomanufacturing course of — from enzyme and microbial design to digital twins that nearly simulate manufacturing processes, and applied sciences that concurrently analyze financial feasibility and environmental influence. The workforce defined that this could shorten improvement timelines, cut back manufacturing prices, and improve the probability of profitable commercialization.
The workforce additionally proposed that techno-economic evaluation (TEA) and life cycle evaluation (LCA) ought to be utilized as design standards from the earliest phases of analysis, moderately than as evaluations carried out solely after analysis is full. The workforce additional emphasised that offer chain resilience — accounting for uncooked materials availability and shifts within the worldwide panorama — ought to be thought of a brand new design normal for biomanufacturing.
This examine is important not for growing a brand new manufacturing know-how, however for comprehensively analyzing the situations for profitable biomanufacturing industrialization and presenting an industrialization roadmap spanning your entire cycle — from securing uncooked supplies to microbial design, fermentation, separation and purification, and market entry. The workforce expects the examine to speed up the commercialization of the bio-based chemical business and, over the long run, contribute to shifting the petroleum-centered chemical business towards an eco-friendly bioeconomy.
The paper, with Ji Yeon Kim and Hye Eun Yu as co-first authors, each Ph.D. candidates in KAIST’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was revealed on-line on May 30 within the worldwide journal Nature Communications.
※ Paper title: Beyond petrochemicals: challenges and alternatives in industrial-scale biomanufacturing
※ DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-73835-1
※ Authors: Ji Yeon Kim (KAIST, co-first writer), Hye Eun Yu (KAIST, co-first writer), Min Ho Kim (KAIST), Sang Yup Lee (KAIST, corresponding writer)
This analysis was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT, by way of the “Development of Platform Technologies of Microbial Cell Factories for Next-Generation Biorefineries” mission (Project No. 2022M3J5A1056117) and the “Development of Advanced Synthetic Biology Source Technologies for Leading the Biomanufacturing Industry” mission (Project No. RS-2024-00399424).