Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101549
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Creating a baker's yeast chassis cell via shikimate pathway engineering for production of sustainable, carbon-neutral plastic precursors for the future. From air bags to carpets, tyres and garden hoses, plastics shape our every day life. Coming from fossil fuels most are currently neither sustainable nor renewable. This project will engineer baker's yeast to produce plastic precursors from cane sugar in a fermentation process. This lays the basis for a sugar cane based chemical industry.
Metabolic engineering of sugarcane: production of a biodegradable bioplastic as a test-case. The aim of this project is to produce a commercially valuable bioplastic called PHB in transgenic sugarcane. This bioplastic has similar properties to petrochemically produced polypropylene, but is fully biodegradable. PHB has been produced in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana at commercially viable levels. The expected outcome of high-level production of PHB in sugarcane would have significant ben ....Metabolic engineering of sugarcane: production of a biodegradable bioplastic as a test-case. The aim of this project is to produce a commercially valuable bioplastic called PHB in transgenic sugarcane. This bioplastic has similar properties to petrochemically produced polypropylene, but is fully biodegradable. PHB has been produced in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana at commercially viable levels. The expected outcome of high-level production of PHB in sugarcane would have significant benefits to the Australian sugar industry, the rural economy, and the Australian environment.Read moreRead less
Sustainable dollar notes and other polypropylenes from bioderived feedstocks. Fossil fuels provide us with the essential chemicals for our life style. The chemical industry recognizes limited supply and a need to reduce carbon emissions. Microbes are able to supply green chemicals (e.g. bio-ethanol), but efficiencies are often low. This project will develop microbes for the fermentative production of plastics from cane sugar.