ACEIZE Tracking the current state of Science and Technology

A San Diego company called Genomatica has begun a small scale manufacturing operation for a type of hard plastic, 1,4‐butanediol, or BDO utlizing a bioengineering microorganism. The mircoorganism eats water and sugar and produces BDO as a byproduct. BDO is currently used for such applications as golf balls, skateboard wheels, and sneakers.

The company has also said that it can create a bioengineered version of an industrial solvent, methyl ethyl ketone, or MEK.

Current manufacturing efforts have produced 3,000 liters of BDO in a pilot plant. Their next challenge is to scale up production to produce industrial quantities of the material.