title: Industrial biomanufacturing: The future of chemical production.
abstract: The current model for industrial chemical manufacturing employs large-scale megafacilities that benefit from economies of unit scale. However, this strategy faces environmental, geographical, political, and economic challenges associated with energy and manufacturing demands. We review how exploiting biological processes for manufacturing (i.e., industrial biomanufacturing) addresses these concerns while also supporting and benefiting from economies of unit number. Key to this approach is the inherent small scale and capital efficiency of bioprocesses and the ability of engineered biocatalysts to produce designer products at high carbon and energy efficiency with adjustable output, at high selectivity, and under mild process conditions. The biological conversion of single-carbon compounds represents a test bed to establish this paradigm, enabling rapid, mobile, and widespread deployment, access to remote and distributed resources, and adaptation to new and changing markets.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Clomburg
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Anna M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Crumbley
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA. ramon.gonzalez@rice.edu.|Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Ramon
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
mesh_terms: D057005:Bioengineering / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D056804:Biofuels; D002617:Chemical Industry / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D004798:Enzymes / Q000737:chemistry; D005544:Forecasting; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D008697:Methane / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D004798:Enzymes; D008697:Methane