BIOREFINERY AS A PLATFORM FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FUNGAL COLORANTS

• Grant number: 21/09175-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): February 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): January 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Silvio Silvério da Silva
• Grantee: Fernanda de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Lorena , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 16/10636-8 - From the cell factory to the Biodiesel-Bioethanol integrated biorefinery: a systems approach applied to complex problems in micro and macroscales, AP.BIOEN.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/14603-8 - Untargeted metabolomics based on molecular networking aiming the valorization of the fungi colored compounds, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

There is a trend in the market to replace synthetic colorants with natural ones. However, a number of issues impede the large-scale production of fungal colorants, including the elucidation of the colorants' biosynthetic pathway, the development of an economic and sustainable process and the need for a large-scale techno-economic evaluation of the process. Within this context, this proposal aims to elucidate some metabolic fluxes involved in the synthesis of Talaromyces amestolkiae colorants, which will contribute to the creation of a sustainable platform for the production of fungal colorants from sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate followed by extraction using eco-sustainable organic solvents, in order to consolidate the viability of the processes within the context of biorefineries. Comprehensive approaches that correlate experimental data with metabolic network models, through isotopic labeling of cultivation substrates, allow to modulate the biosynthetic pathway and contribute to reducing the cost of the process. Furthermore, the use of non-toxic and biodegradable substrates has become an environmental issue, with great attention to their applicability in obtaining high value-added biomolecules at low cost. In this context, having knowledge of the environmental impacts of the process through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is crucial considering an industrial product. Thus, this proposal aims to explore synergies between biofuel production processes integrated to the production of molecules with greater added value, in the biopigment production field, aiming at the technically effective use of the by-product from plant biomass present in the biorefinery, that is, the sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate.