Position: PhD since May 2017
Department: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Tanvi Govil
Research Title: Consolidated bioprocessing of Corn Stover to PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoate, a biopolymer)
Funding Agency: The CNAM-Biomaterials Center (CNAM-Bio) supported by the South Dakota Governor’s Office
Integrated bioprocessing has always been an attractive alternative to reduce the cost of producing bioplastics significantly. It would be advantageous to develop viable routes for synthesizing commercial biopolymers by recycling lignocellulosic wastes, an ideal alternative low-cost feedstock for Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Process economics has revealed that the use of inexpensive and renewable lignocellulosic as carbon substrates for PHA production can result in as much as a 40-50% reduction in the overall production cost. However, pretreatment of lignocellulosic, the first step, accounts for about 33% of the total cost of value-added product production. High-temperature bioprocessing employing extremophilic microorganisms and their thermostable enzymes, typically operated at 60°C to breakdown lignocellulosic biomass and produce PHA, can be a promising option to remove this bottleneck. Hence, current project focusses on consolidated bioprocessing of Corn Stover to PHA using our lab strain Geobacillus sp. LC-41 that surprisingly has a dual ability to degrade corn stover, and also accumulate PHA.
Areas of expertise: Gene and recombinant DNA cloning; DNA sequencing analysis; sub cloning to expression vectors; genomic PCR, RT-PCR; site directed mutagenesis; chromosomal editing of microbial genomes, including use of CRISPR/Cas9.