The greenhouse gas that is twenty times more harmful than carbon dioxide, methane, may become the feedstock for a material that helps reduce our dependency on plastic in its current form.
Methane, as you know, is generated by the natural decomposition of plant materials and is a component of natural gas. Biomethane is the name for renewably sourced methane produced from activities such as waste-water treatment, decomposition within landfills, farm wastes, and anaerobic digestion.
NatureWorks, the company that developed the plant-based biopolymer, Ingeo, is currently partnering US biotechnology company, Calysta, in a multi-year joint development program that aims to use methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as a feedstock for Ingeo biopolymers and intermediates, rather than the plant sugars used today.
The R&D collaboration is making use of Calysta’s biological gas-to-chemicals platform for biological conversion of methane to high value chemicals, to develop the fermentation process that will transform renewable biomethane into lactic acid, the building block of polylactic acid (PLA) and biopolymers.
This new source will provide an additional feedstock for Ingeo that is expected to lower the cost of its production.
The project has already seen some success. Calysta has already demonstrated lab-scale production of lactic acid from methane this year, one year after the collaboration was announced. This is a major milestone in the project. Fundamental R&D should be completed in the next two to three years, enabling pilot production in three to five years.
NatureWorks’ Ken Williams, program leader for the Calysta-NatureWorks collaboration, stated, “If proven through this collaboration, methane to lactic acid conversion technology could be revolutionary, providing sustainable alternative feedstocks for Ingeo. When coupled with NatureWorks’ proven commercial process for lactic acid to Ingeo, the methane to lactic acid process would transform a harmful greenhouse gas into useful and in-demand consumer and industrial products. This disruptive platform could support high-value chemicals and liquid fuels.”
At the end of October this year, The US Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office announced a grant of up to US$2.5 million for this NatureWorks and Calysta research collaboration.
