Combining Metabolic Engineering and Electrocatalysis: Application to the Production of Polyamides from Sugar

Miguel Suastegui; John E Matthiesen; Jack M Carraher; Nacu Hernandez; Natalia Rodriguez Quiroz; Adam Okerlund; Eric W Cochran; Zengyi Shao; Jean-Philippe Tessonnier

doi:10.1002/anie.201509653

Combining Metabolic Engineering and Electrocatalysis: Application to the Production of Polyamides from Sugar

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2016 Feb 12;55(7):2368-73. doi: 10.1002/anie.201509653. Epub 2016 Jan 14.

Authors

Miguel Suastegui^{1

2}, John E Matthiesen^{1

2

3}, Jack M Carraher^{1

2}, Nacu Hernandez¹, Natalia Rodriguez Quiroz², Adam Okerlund², Eric W Cochran¹, Zengyi Shao^{4

5}, Jean-Philippe Tessonnier^{6

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.
² NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC), Ames, IA, 50011, USA.
³ US Department of Energy Ames Laboratory, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA. zyshao@iastate.edu.
⁵ NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC), Ames, IA, 50011, USA. zyshao@iastate.edu.
⁶ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA. tesso@iastate.edu.
⁷ NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC), Ames, IA, 50011, USA. tesso@iastate.edu.
⁸ US Department of Energy Ames Laboratory, Ames, IA, 50011, USA. tesso@iastate.edu.

PMID: 26840213
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201509653

Abstract

Biorefineries aim to convert biomass into a spectrum of products ranging from biofuels to specialty chemicals. To achieve economically sustainable conversion, it is crucial to streamline the catalytic and downstream processing steps. In this work, a route that combines bio- and electrocatalysis to convert glucose into bio-based unsaturated nylon-6,6 is reported. An engineered strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as the initial biocatalyst for the conversion of glucose into muconic acid, with the highest reported muconic acid titer of 559.5 mg L(-1) in yeast. Without any separation, muconic acid was further electrocatalytically hydrogenated to 3-hexenedioic acid in 94 % yield despite the presence of biogenic impurities. Bio-based unsaturated nylon-6,6 (unsaturated polyamide-6,6) was finally obtained by polymerization of 3-hexenedioic acid with hexamethylenediamine.

Keywords: bio-based polymers; biorefinery; electrocatalysis; metabolic engineering; muconic acid.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Biomass
Carbohydrates / chemistry*
Catalysis
Fermentation
Metabolic Engineering*
Nylons / chemical synthesis*

Substances

Carbohydrates
Nylons