Ceiling tile manufacturing is a $20 billion domestic industry that operates in a highly competitive global market with slim profit margins. Spurred by global demands for environmentally sustainable products, leading global ceiling tile manufacturers have made recycled and renewable materials central to their manufacturing process [1-3]. Plant-derived starches have replaced petroleum-based binders. Recycled paper and more recently, recycled waste ceiling tiles, have become an important part of the raw materials of ceiling tile manufacturing. With concerning amounts of discarded ceiling tiles going into landfills, this practice in particular reduces the burden on landfills [4]. Additionally, using cheaper recycled materials benefits manufacturers by lowering production costs, and enabling them to maintain global competitiveness while simultaneously practicing environmental responsibility.However, the incorporation of recycled and renewable material has wrought problems in the manufacturing process. Low concentrations of highly volatile butyric acid seep into the finished tiles and produce bad odors, adversely affecting the consistency of product quality. This industry wide problem is currently mitigated largely through biocide application.
To gain perspective on the problem, we communicated directly with Armstrong World Industries, global leader and largest US manufacturer, and USG, the second largest US ceiling tile manufacturer. Both industry leaders affirmed the prevalence of the ongoing butyric acid problem, the management of this problem through biocides, and concerns about the financial and environmental costs of biocide use.The green building sector is poised for significant growth in the coming decade [1,2]. Cradle-to-grave life cycle assessments of green-building products will give market advantage to those products that have integrated recycled and renewable materials with a low environmental footprint. For US ceiling tile manufacturing to remain globally competitive in such a market, producing low-cost, high-quality products that provide valuable manufacturing jobs to local communities and drive environmentally responsible and sustainable manufacturing. As such, to address the butyric acid problem arising from greener manufacturing, alternative innovative solutions that accomplish environmental sustainability and reduce production costs needs investigation. The Broad Run iGEM team is in its second year researching a synthetic biology solution to the aforementioned ceiling tile manufacturing problem. In collaboration with world industry leader, Armstrong World Industries, the goal of this year’s research was to draw closer towards an implementable solution with industry wide applications: through a deeper understanding of the problem’s source, the interconnected processes in the ceiling tile manufacturing operations where the problems manifests itself, and the design and experimental testing of the proposed solution. From information garnered through communications with Armstrong and USG, we postulate that excess starch is the source of the problem. The proposed solution is to degrade the excess starch, thus controlling anaerobic butyric acid production, through engineering yeast to produce amylase enzymes; an implementable solution that could reside in any part of the manufacturing plant, from the board mill to the primary or secondary water treatment plant.
References
1. Ceiling Tiles Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023; http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ceiling-tiles-market.htmlC2. Ceiling Tiles Market Expected to reach US$42.04 billion by 2023 - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023: TMR, https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2016/03/15/819744/0/en/Ceiling-Tiles-Market-Expected-to-reach-US-42-04-billion-by-2023-Global-Industry-Analysis-Size-Share-Growth-Trends-and-Forecast-2015-2023-TMR.html3. Develop Responsible Solutions. Ceilings. USG. https://www.usg.com/content/usgcom/en/about-usg/sustainability-atusg/develop-resp-solutions/responsible-ceilings-solutions.html4. Armstrong Recycles 10,000,000th Square Foot of Discarded Ceiling Tile http://www.armstrong.com/commceilingsna/article3265.html
