SBIR Phase I: Carbon dioxide (CO2) fixation into cellulosic textile products through heteropolymer stabilization of enzymes in cell-free synthesis

Award ID: 2136045

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I proposal is in the development of a new carbon utilization technology with the ability to make high-value, essential products from carbon dioxide (CO2) like cellulosic textiles, food, and building materials. Enzymatic carbon utilization is of high interest due to its ability to make high-value natural products from carbon dioxide. The impediment to enzymatic carbon utilization technology has been the short longevity of both enzymes and input molecules under cell-free industrial conditions. This project will yield a novel enzyme stabilization approach for carbon fixation and synthesis enzymes. The resulting system may unlock CO2 as a new, natural resource for essential product supply chains that are carbon-negative and water- and land-neutral, unlocking a $10 trillion global market. This scalable technology could create a new carbon industry and advance manufacturing jobs in the United States. This technology could enable sustainable and domestic production of Americas most essential materials from waste carbon dioxide emissions at a cheaper cost than todays production. This project involves a production method that applies a bio-inspired, non-covalent enzyme stabilization strategy that employs cell-free conversion of carbon emissions into cellulosic fibers for textiles in a CO2-to-textile process over industrially relevant time periods. The proposed stabilization method preserves enzyme conformation without harming baseline activity to allow for enzymatic activity in non-natural environments. The heteropolymers are synthesized using a standard reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization approach to produce disordered polymeric chains with diverse monomers of varying charges and hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity characteristics to complement and stabilize enzymes surfaces. The disordered nature of the polymers enables local surface binding to stabilize the enzyme, maintaining its conformation and protecting against denaturing or degradation. The project scope covers key technical hurdles: (1) the development of a enzyme stabilization technique for carbon fixation and synthesis enzymes, (2) the development of a carbon conversion system and process in a non-natural, industrial environment, and (3) confirmation of a full proof-of-concept solution that can be scalable from mL to 50L scale. If successful, the result is an effective enzyme stabilization method that can fix carbon emissions under cell-free conditions for use in industrial supply chains. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Rajesh Mehta