Evonik’s Fermas industrial biotechnology plant could provide a blueprint for growing the bioeconomy

Performance plastics, such as poly(methyl methacrylate), underpin the modern economy. Global manufacturing of plastic precursors relies on fossil carbon sources, and the urgently needed shift toward r...

LanzaTech Global (LNZA)/b) announced that CEO Dr. Jennifer Holmgren was featured on the Water Tower Research Small-Cap Spotlight podcast, hosted by Tim Gerdeman. The discussion offers investors an in-depth overview of LanzaTech’s biofermentation technology, which converts industrial waste gas into ethanol for use in sustainable aviation fuel, marine fuel, and chemicals targeting what the company describes as a multi-trillion dollar global market.The company said the podcast also covers its shift from a pure licensing model to owning and operating its own projects, supported by more than $500 million from Brookfield, recent European certification expected to open higher-value EU/UK opportunities, and key milestones anticipated over the next 12–18 months, including the first Brookfield project transfer, FID and construction launches on projects in the UK and Belgium, and initial marine-fuel use of its recycled carbon ethanol. A webcast link is to be available on LanzaTech’s investor relations website, and the podcast will also be posted on Water Tower Research’s YouTube page.

HALIFAX: Nova Scotia will soon be a major player in the world of bioinnovation thanks to the newly opened Neptune BioInnovation Centre in Dartmouth. The centre will transform Nova Scotia’s bioindustrial landscape and will be a world-leading biofermentation centre, allowing Nova Scotia to compete globally, strengthen domestic supply chains and foster biotechnology advancements across critical […]

Performance plastics, such as poly(methyl methacrylate), underpin the modern economy. Global manufacturing of plastic precursors relies on fossil carbon sources, and the urgently needed shift toward renewable carbon use through biofermentation is hindered by the low tolerance of producer strains to methacrylate esters. The principal mode of butyl methacrylate cellular toxicity is membrane disruption. To understand this process, the conditions for membrane stability, and recovery after solvent shock, we investigate the phase stability of hydrated lipid membranes at high levels of a key intermediate, butyl methacrylate. We assess the role of cis- vs trans-unsaturation in 18-carbon chain phospholipids on butyl methacrylate-induced phase conversion and polymorphism. Using ssNMR, SAXS and cryoEM, we demonstrate the formation of stable lipidic cubic phases in hydrated lipid/solvent (cis-chain phospholipid lipid/butyl methacrylate) systems at a 1:6 molar ratio entirely lacking monoolein. Transient lipidic cubic phases form in trans-chain phospholipid/butyl methacrylate systems, which slowly convert to bilayers through a spontaneous “membrane healing” process during recovery after solvent shock. The observed bicontinuous nanostructures with a cubic phase architecture coexist with a stable, monocontinuous hydrated phase of the same morphology but with simpler topological connectivity, which demonstrates that phase stability in cubic phases does not require topological complementarity. We propose trans-lipid substitutions in membranes of fermentative strains as a key step toward sustainable production of methacrylate esters.