Lignin, the tough polymer that gives plant cell walls their rigidity, is being broken down by soil bacteria and their enzymes to make renewable chemicals. This matters because lignin is the most abundant source of renewable aromatic material on Earth, yet it is notoriously difficult to break down and is a messy mixture of different structural units. Currently, most chemicals and plastics come from crude oil, so finding a way to turn this abundant plant waste into useful products could reduce that dependence. If this research succeeds, it could transform the economics of cellulosic ethanol plants. Instead of burning lignin for low-grade heat, these plants could convert it into high-value chemicals. The project specifically aims to turn lignin into ferulic acid, then use biocatalysis to produce the pharmaceutical L-Dopa and fragrance chemicals like coniferyl acetate and isoeugenol. The team will also scale up production and assess the sustainability impact. This is applied synthetic biology with a clear industrial goal: replacing petrochemical feedstocks with renewable lignin in the production of specific, commercially valuable compounds.
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Lignin is a polymer found in plant cell walls, and is the most abundant source of renewable aromatic material on Earth. Lignin therefore represents a valuable raw material for generation of renewable chemicals, which will help society to reduce its dependance on crude oil for production of chemicals and materials such as plastics. Converting lignin into renewable chemicals is a very difficult challenge, because it is very hard to break down, and it is very heterogeneous (mixture of different structural units). Researchers at Warwick University have recently discovered several soil bacteria that can break down lignin, and specific enzyme biocatalysts that can oxidise lignin, and through a BBSRC/FAPESP FAPPA award have collaborated with CTBE in Brazil to identify new lignin-degrading enzymes through genome sequencing, and to develop new "biosensors" that could be used to engineer recombinant lignin-degrading micro-organisms that could break down lignin to high-value chemicals. The proposal brings together expertise in cellulosic ethanol production and metagenomic DNA sequencing (CTBE) with expertise in biocatalytic lignin valorisation (Warwick) and biocatalysis for high value chemicals production (Manchester, UCL). The overall aim is to use synthetic biology to break down lignin to intermediate ferulic acid, which has been generated from lignin via bacterial fermentation in previous work, and then to convert ferulic acid via biocatalysis into high-value chemicals. The project will : 1) optimise a lignin stream for the project from cellulosic bioethanol production at the CTBE pilot plant; 2) convert lignin into ferulic acid from lignin using synthetic biology; 3) enzymatically convert ferulic acid into a high-value pharmaceutical chemical, L-Dopa; 4) generate high value fragrance chemicals (coniferyl acetate, isoeugenol) from ferulic acid; 5) scale up chemicals production from renewable feedstocks; 6) assess the technical and sustainability impact of the methods developed in the project.
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