Bio-based Polyester Diols Strain Engineering (Medium-Chain Diols)

Polyester Diols are essential building blocks for high-performance polymers, coatings, and resins. Traditionally derived from petrochemical sources, there is increasing industrial demand for renewable, bio-based diols, especially medium-chain diols (C6 to C12), to improve the flexibility and sustainability of polyester and polyurethane materials.

CD Biosynsis focuses on developing robust microbial cell factories for the sustainable production of these medium-chain diols. We employ advanced metabolic engineering to design and optimize novel pathways in hosts like E. coli or yeast, leveraging fatty acid intermediates via the omega-oxidation and reduction pathways. Our strategy includes knocking out the beta-oxidation pathway to prevent product degradation, ensuring high titer and yield of long-chain diols for competitive, bio-based polymer manufacturing.

Pain Points

The biosynthesis of medium-chain polyester diols faces several critical limitations in microbial systems:

• Low Product Titer due to Degradation: The desired diol products are often metabolized or degraded by the native beta-oxidation pathway, significantly reducing the final concentration (titer) and yield.
• Inefficient Reduction Steps: The conversion of fatty acid intermediates (e.g., fatty aldehydes) to diols requires multiple reduction steps that are highly dependent on cofactor supply (NADPH/NADH), which can be a metabolic bottleneck.
• Substrate Selectivity and Chain Length Control: Engineering the omega-oxidation pathway to specifically produce a single, targeted chain length (C6, C8, C10, or C12) often results in a heterogeneous mix of side products.
• Toxicity of Intermediates and Products: High concentrations of fatty acid intermediates (aldehydes) and the final diol products can be toxic to the microbial host, limiting the maximum achievable titer.

Overcoming these challenges requires comprehensive metabolic reprogramming to precisely control the carbon chain length and maximize product accumulation.

Solutions

CD Biosynsis applies advanced synthetic biology and metabolic engineering to enhance the sustainable production of medium-chain diols:

Targeted Fatty Acid Pathway Engineering

We engineer the native fatty acid synthesis pathway (FAS) to control chain length and ensure efficient channeling of specific length intermediates (C6-C12) into the omega-oxidation route.

Beta-Oxidation Knockout for Yield

We perform gene knockout of the beta-oxidation pathway to prevent the degradation of fatty acid intermediates and the final diol product, ensuring maximum carbon yield and product accumulation.

Optimized omega-Oxidation and Reduction

We engineer and optimize the Cytochrome P450 systems for omega-oxidation and the terminal reductase enzymes to efficiently convert fatty acids into their corresponding diols, while managing cofactor supply.

Product Transport and Tolerance Engineering

We enhance the microbial host’s tolerance to the synthesized diol and intermediate aldehydes, often coupled with engineered efflux pumps to facilitate product excretion and improve final titer.

This comprehensive engineering approach enables the cost-effective and large-scale synthesis of high-purity, medium-chain bio-diols.

Advantages

Choosing CD Biosynsis's Polyester Diol strain engineering service offers the following core value:

Expertise in Fatty Acid Metabolism

Specialization in precisely controlling and diverting the fatty acid synthesis and degradation pathways to synthesize specific chain-length monomers (C6 to C12).

Maximized Product Yield

The beta-oxidation knockout strategy ensures that the carbon flux is quantitatively captured in the form of the target diol, significantly increasing overall yield.

Sustainable Feedstock Utilization

The process is designed to utilize renewable, low-cost lipid-based feedstocks (fatty acids, oils), reducing reliance on petrochemical precursors.

High Monomer Purity

Targeted metabolic control and pathway balancing minimize side products, ensuring the high purity required for industrial polymerization processes.

Accelerated Commercial Viability

Engineered strains are optimized for robust performance and high titer, directly translating to reduced production and recovery costs at scale.

We are dedicated to providing genetically superior microbial strains to drive the commercial success of the bio-based polyester and resin markets.

Process

CD Biosynsis's Polyester Diol strain engineering service follows a standardized research workflow, ensuring every step is precise and controllable:

• Host Analysis and Target Definition: Define the target diol chain length (C6-C12) and minimum titer/yield. Conduct Metabolic Flux Analysis to model carbon flow and identify bottlenecks in fatty acid synthesis and degradation.
• Technical Solution Design: Formulate the engineering plan, focusing on beta-oxidation knockout, engineering the omega-oxidation P450 system, and selecting high-efficiency reductase enzymes for the terminal step.
• Strain Editing and Construction: Complete the construction of synthetic operons. Use CRISPR or other tools for the precise editing and stable chromosomal integration of pathway genes and the deletion of beta-oxidation genes.
• Performance Validation Experiments: Conduct fed-batch fermentation experiments using lipid or sugar feedstocks, measuring the final diol titer (g/L), specific production rate, and the purity profile of the diol product.
• Result Report Output: Compile a Strain Engineering Experimental Report that includes fermentation kinetics, genetic modification map, and detailed chemical analysis (GC/HPLC) of the final diol product, essential for polymerization trials.

Technical communication is maintained throughout the process, focusing on timely performance feedback and strategic adjustments to the metabolic engineering plan.

Accelerate your Bio-based Diol R&D and scale-up! CD Biosynsis provides customized strain engineering solutions:

• Detailed Flux Analysis and Pathway Report, outlining the most impactful genetic targets for high-yield medium-chain diol production.
• Contracted clients receive consultation on optimizing two-phase fermentation strategies for product separation and cell protection.
• Experimental reports include complete raw data on growth kinetics, carbon conversion efficiency, and final diol titer, essential for commercialization.