Industrial Microbes founders here. We all worked in biofuels for many years and are excited about new green ways of manufacturing. Some of the chemicals we want to make actually absorb carbon dioxide during their production. It's a great time to be designing and building using biology.
Some of the chemicals we want to make actually absorb carbon dioxide during their production
If you are replacing natural gas with sugar as the energy source, then how are you able to absorb CO2? At some point oxidation of hydrocarbons will yield CO2.
I think what you are doing is very cool, but wanted to understand how you are going to do what's claimed.
The chemical production is what absorbs CO2. The CO2 released from metabolism is another thing entirely, because making and then using sugar is carbon-neutral.
I agree, it's a little confusing. Some chemicals like malic acid can actually be made from both CO2 and methane. Of the four carbons in that molecule, one can come from CO2 and the rest from methane.
I'm an academic molecular biologist (I study human biology), but haven't investigated iMicrobes or LS9.
I assume what you learned from LS9 will be useful for iMicrobes. Is there anything non-proprietary you can say about what you learned from your LS9 experience?
Just trying to understand better what's the new thing here and how you caught YC's interest.
We are grateful for our time at LS9, we got to work with some amazing people. I learned:
It's important to be flexible. Having the ability to use multiple raw materials and make different products is important, especially when the prices of all those things is constantly changing (think oil today).
Most people won't pay more for a green product. But if you can lower the cost for something that's already environmentally friendly, you can make an impact.
When it comes to living cells, we don't understand as much as we think we do. That means you need to try both engineering and evolutionary (random) strategies.
There's also this Polish (startup? company? hard to say) Elementa Critica Sp. z o.o. They are basing on microbes discovered in one unusually safe coal mine in Poland - these bacteria eat methan and produce ectoine among other things, and the company attemp to use them on industrial scale (they already have patented process to isolate the ectoine from grown bacteria).
Neat! We hadn't heard of them. There are a handful of companies using natural methanotrophs (methane-eating bacteria) to make chemicals. We hope that moving methanotroph enzymes into the standard industrial strains of bacteria and yeast will open up many more applications for these amazing enzymes.
For anyone interested in the production of chemicals using biological methods, a good report on the Industrialization of Biology: A Roadmap to Accelerate the Advanced Manufacturing of Chemicals was released last Friday (free PDF): http://www.nap.edu/catalog/19001/industrialization-of-biolog...
With methane being one of the major feedstocks in the chemical industry, is the basis for the company that microbe production will be cheaper than traditional catalysts?
Or are you trying to go for more decentralized processes with lower capital costs?
(I have a chemical engineering degree, but don't use it)
Methane is lower cost than other raw materials like oil. That is why there is an opportunity to make chemicals cheaper, and also greener. The microbe itself it the catalyst - actually the enzymes inside do the work.
A decentralized process would let you use all the stranded natural gas that is currently flared. It's a big challenge though.
Sure, but existing chemical companies already use methane as a feedstock.
It would be more interesting if you could rescue the flared natural gas in a place like North Dakota where they're currently not using it and/or reinjecting it into wells to maintain pressure.
My startup is hiring, we are doing cool BioTech stuff :) We are looking for Python hackers, and scientists. Contact me at josh@synthego.com for more info.
Let us know if you have any questions!