2012|13 Annual Report Fraunhofer IGB

91 Dr. Lars O. Wiemann Phone +49 9421 187-353 lars.wiemann@igb.fraunhofer.de Prof. Dr. Volker Sieber Phone +49 9421 187-300 volker.sieber@igb.fraunhofer.de Conversion of glucosamine into N-containing polymers The degradation products of chitin/chitosan (hydrolysates and monomers) serve as substrates for biotechnology processes for the production of N-containing functional monomers for the polymer industry. N-containing compounds for the pro- duction of polyamides and isocyanates are of particular inter- est for the polymer industry and so far it has not been possi- ble to produce them on the basis of renewable raw materials. ChiBio is taking two different routes here: the Industrial Bioca- talysis Working Group at the Technische Universität München under the direction of Prof. Dr. Thomas Brück is developing optimized yeast strains in order to convert the chitin hydro- lysates or glucosamine through fermentation into functional- ized fats/fatty acids and the corresponding aminocarboxylic acids. In parallel, the BioCat project group is using cell-free biotechnology methods in a multi-enzyme process to produce functionalized heterocycles from glucosamine. A large propor- tion of the required enzymes is now available recombinantly and is currently being optimized using enzyme engineering methods. The puriﬁed products from both routes are then used directly in the polymer industry as bifunctional mono- mers. Additional work Work on efﬁcient puriﬁcation methods is being carried out by the ChiBio partners Clariant and the Fraunhofer ICT. Polym- erization trials, together with characterization of the polymer properties, are being carried out at the laboratories of Evonik Industries AG. Biological by-products that accumulate, such as proteins and lipids, are being tested for their suitability as sub- strates for biogas generation. 1 Crustacean shells accumulate in large quantities as waste. 2 Process chain in the ChiBio project. References [1] FAOSTAT, FAO statistical databases, ﬁsheries data (2001) Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy (http://www.fao.org) [2] Kandra, P.; Challa, M. M.; Jyothi, H. K. P. (2012) Efﬁcient use of shrimp waste: present and future trends, Appl Microbiol Bio- technol 93: 17–29 [3] Vaaje-Kolstad, G. et al. (2010) An oxidative enzyme boosting the enzymatic conversion of recalcitrant polysaccharides, Science 330: 219–222 [4] Moß, K. S. et al. (2012) Amantichitinum ursilacus gen. nov., sp. nov., a chitin-degrading bacterium found at the Bärensee, Stuttgart, Germany, Int J Syst Evol Microbiol ijs. ijs.0.034447-0v1- ijs.0.034447- Funding We would like to thank the European Union for funding the re- search project “ChiBio” in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013), grant agreement no. 289284. Project partners and further information www.chibiofp7.eu 2 Contacts

2012|13 Annual Report Fraunhofer IGB

Pages