Large-scale bioprocess competitiveness: the potential of dynamic metabolic control in two-stage fermentations

Bioprocessing technology offers a potentially promising and more sustainable alternative to many traditional chemical process technologies; however to date this potential has largely not been realized. For large-scale bioprocessing to have larger penetration into larger volume chemical markets, new technologies need to both exploit the key advantages of biocatalysts over chemical catalysts, while addressing the key limitations of bioprocessing as compared to more traditional chemical process technology. The use of dynamic metabolic control strategies to engineer productive and robust stationary phase biocatalysts in combination with advanced two-stage fermentation has the potential to both increase process level metrics, including specific productivity, volumetric rates, titers and yields, while leveraging the unique ability of whole cell biocatalysts to perform multiple complex chemical conversions in a single unit operation.