Location: Bioproducts Research
Project Number: 2030-30600-002-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Jun 5, 2025
End Date: Jun 4, 2030
Objective:
Objective 1: Develop novel active ingredients with reduced human and environmental hazards.
Objective 2: Thermochemical processing of underutilized biomass resources.
Objective 3: Enable new commercial materials made from biopolymers.
Approach:
Displacing chemical synthesis with enzymatic conversion and (3) Synthesizing green materials via fermentation. For biomass that is not easily converted via these biochemical means, thermochemical conversion is applied.
Objective 1: Develop novel active ingredients with reduced human and environmental hazards by creating self-assembled reversible agents. Our team pioneered a Schiff base bonding mechanism for generating self-assembled reversible active agents, which is applied here to create safer active ingredients. This includes reversible antibiotics that reduce human and environmental hazards and minimize antibiotic resistance of microbes. Other bioproducts from Schiff base chemistry will include food preservatives, disinfectants, cleaning agents, and sanitizers.
Objective 2: Thermochemical processing of underutilized biomass resources. Ag-derived biomass will be converted to value-added bioproducts including water filters and chemical scaffolds via thermochemical reactions that form tailored biochar materials that meet specific market needs. Objectives 3 depends on displacing chemical synthesis with enzymatic conversion and synthesizing green materials via fermentation. For biomass that is not easily converted via these biochemical means, thermochemical conversion is applied.
Objective 3: Enable new commercial materials made from biopolymers. Our modern lifestyle is highly dependent on petroleum-based plastics for almost every facet of life, however, this dependance on plastic comes with environmental and toxicological risk of microplastic exposure, which is being addressed here. The basic tenet behind Objective 3 is that, if it is unavoidable that humans are to absorb nano- or microplastics, we propose aiming for plastic additives that are benign-by-design by using plant-based additives. Additives are to meet food-grade or even medical-grade standards, reducing their risk level. Tests will be applied to ensure that new additives will be safe for both environmental exposure and even unintended human ingestion.