The butyric acid problem present in the ceiling tile manufacturing industry was addressed in this project with a solution suitable for industrial application.
Future Work
Having found that the investigated solution works, the following work is outlined as the next steps.-In the project, long term testing was completed; industrial water samples were agitated and aerated in a closed system. In the future we plan to recreate in our prototype the continuous in and out flow of process and wastewater present in the plant. -Having proved that yeast can survive and grow off of starch and heat killed yeast, we plan to incorporate this into a more accurate representation of the plant: one with yeast in industrial water without the addition of standard glucose rich yeast media. - To target the problem even closer to its root–the board mill– we will test our solution with process water samples from the whitewater chest and the dry and wet broke chests, located in the board mil, and at higher temperatures. -While we used constitutive promoters in our project, we plan to investigate the possibility of a starch inducible control mechanism, where amylase is only produced when starch is above a certain threshold. This is because starch is an important material used as a binder in ceiling tile manufacturing, and manufacturers want to recover as much of the starch as possible. As starch is not a waste product, we want to ensure that we remove only excess starch, to prevent all the starch from being degraded. While we postulated that yeast could compete with the bacteria and degrade the excess starch, this possibility would need testing and may not hold. In such a case, a starch responsive control mechanism would be another viable option. -Incorporate the kill-switch as described in our Design page for containment in the event of an accidental release-Continue dialogue with the public on this and other application of synthetic biology for its benefits, risks, and safety.
Implications and Implementation
A nearly 20 billion dollar industry projected to projected to grow to 40 billion by 2023, the ceiling tile industry is plagued by the challenge of butyric acid damage (Transparent Market Research). With the growing costs and increasing environmental risks, conventional biocide solutions are unsustainable and costly in the long run.Through our research, we have developed a highly-effective, sustainable, long-term solution to this challenging, costly problem. Once inserted into the manufacturing process, either in the main board mill or in the water treatment plant, or a combination of both, our biological system has the potential to rapidly degrade excess starch, eliminating the food source of butyric acid-producing bacteria. Our genetically-engineered organisms will thrive in manufacturing plants in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Our solution is self-sustaining and doesn’t have to be replaced over time or require additional nutrients. Unlike biocides, our biological system doesn’t require daily maintenance, repeated applications, high energy usage for powerful aeration blowers otherwise needed to prevent anaerobic plant conditions, or expensive deployment equipment. Cost-effective, environmentally sustainable, and requiring minimal maintenance, our solution shows potential to transform a core, industrial process in the ceiling industry. Moreover, circumventing the butyric acid problem enables ceiling tile industry environmental leaders like Armstrong to further increase their utilization of recycled raw materials content thus increasing contributing towards environmental sustainability.Even though our biological solution will exist within a closed industrial system with regulatory oversight, future developmental work will continue to incorporate a containment mechanism for the organisms to ensure safety in the event of accidental release.
More broadly, our research shows the great promise of synthetic biology to transform manufacturing industries. Technologies, like those developed in this research, can cut operational costs, increase production levels, create jobs in the American manufacturing sector and boost environmental sustainability initiatives.
