Biological conversion technologies development

Apart from the chemical technology developments mentioned above, metabolic pathway and flux engineering will have an increasing impact on the way multi-step organic syntheses are carried out in the fine-chemicals industry. For the next generation of microbial conversions, the challenge of molecular biology is to ... 

Several approaches have been proposed for the production of liquid fuels from biomass. Alcohol production via fermentation is state-of-the-art technology for specific feedstocks (grain etc.). The use of non-food sources (urban refuse, industrial wastes, etc.) is not fully developed. Processing times are on the order of days however for biological conversion. Non-biological methods fall into two categories (1) direct liquefaction, and (2) indirect liquefaction. Both involve a thermal conversion step. Direct liquefaction... 

It is clear from the conversion yield that the biological process was worthy of further development for potential use in the longer term. Work was especially needed to improve the concentration (8 g/liter at the time) and to deal with the slightly different impurity profile (total 0.3% with 0.1% identified as the R-amine VIII). Also, technologies (e.g. ultrafiltration) needed to be evaluated to ensure that proteinaceous material did not contaminate the product. 

A variety of chemical and biological reactions involving supercritical fluid technology are being explored and developed. They include polymerization reactions, biomass conversion, hydrogen production, applications of supercritical water oxidation, self-assembly applications, synthesis of specialty chemicals, manufacture of materials with tailored properties, and much more. These developments and new ones are expected to mature and be commercially deployed in years to come. 

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