Scale up of precision fermentation for biobased ingredients

The paint and coating industry is in great need for high-performance bio-based solutions especially for binders, fillers, pigments, and additives like functional nanomaterials. The EU-funded research project PERFECOAT has the goal to introduce a variety of new biomass-derived solutions to replace fossil material in paint and coating ingredients. The different biomass sources, tailormade modifying methods, and the biotechnology used the process the biomass are topics of this webinar.

So far in the project, the PERFECOAT team has successfully developed innovative bio-based solutions from bio-waste and agricultural residues. Besides microbially produced alginates and lipids, the project also aimed to develop and produce at least two different formulations for bio-based red pigments and dyes as well as other colours and identified great potential for the production of red and orange pigments from the fungus Talaromyces atroroseus. Alternative strategies for carotenoids used the yeasts R. toruloides and Y. lipolytica, which also allow the production of the violet pigment violacein, resulting in a deep purple colour. Other pathways show potential for the development of additional colours such as green from prodeoxyviolacein or pink from deoxyviolacein.
The second webinar episode will present equally successful solutions for the ingredient group of binders. Binders represent one of the main challenges in paint-formulations. Different project partners generated a selection of bio-based binder samples, e.g., modified alginates (SINTEF), xanthan (Technical University Munich), and xylan (Celignis) derived from different biomass resources like agricultural residues, e.g., poplar wood, beech wood, wheat straw, and late cut grass.

Webinar held on 8 April 2024 with:

Amelie Skopp (Technical University Munich) – The beauty of “green” – rethinking an approach to bio-based ingredients
Srdjan Gavrilović (TalTech) – Modification of bio-based feedstock for binder applications
Anders Ødum (Chromologics) – Scale up of precision fermentation for bio-based ingredients