Mason Brockett

Entrepreneurial ingenuity is the wellspring of economic growth.

 

But transforming an amazing idea into a commercially viable product – especially in the world of green chemistry – requires expensive and scarce economic infrastructure that often can be difficult for entrepreneurs to locate, secure for use, and then operate effectively.

Yet, where those infrastructure and workforce bottlenecks can be overcome, the fast-growing green chemistry and bioprocessing industries are well-placed to deliver economic growth and excellent jobs.

The Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory (IBRL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign opened more than four years ago in order to address those very same infrastructure and workforce bottlenecks.

IBRL helps test and scale up green chemistry inventions, drawing an incredible mix of clients, all while educating students with hands-on experience in the lab.

“Our lab works with companies from Fortune 50 companies to the smallest start-ups, and so do the students in our program,” explained Beth Conerty, IBRL’s Associate Director of Business Development.

But with the industry’s explosive growth comes incredible demand for IBRL’s bioprocessing and bio-manufacturing testing and services.

“Certain pieces of our equipment are booked for six or seven months in advance,” explains Beth.

Now, IBRL is seeking to expand. The lab is pursuing financial support from donors and seeking grants in order to break ground on a new facility that would allow it to service more entrepreneurs and industry leaders while training more students to join the fast-growing industry.

Building a best-in-class facility

In developing the idea for a bioprocessing facility four years ago, IBRL’s founders recognized a historical parallel in successful rural economic development.

“Our lab was spun out of the biofuels industry. We had witnessed how much infrastructure and workforce support was needed to grow that sector and we could see the same challenges ahead in the bioprocessing and green chemistry sectors,” explained Beth.

“Fortunately, many of biofuel’s technologies are applicable in our sector, and we capitalized on that common ground,” she added.

Today, the lab works with a broad range of clients in different industries, with about half hailing from the world of green chemistry who are working to develop the ingredients for plant-based products across textiles, packaging, fuels, and other environmentally friendly products. The other half of IBRL’s work is food focused.

“Most of our clients come in having done some work at the bench scale,” said Beth.

That means they have formulated their idea, generated their intellectual property, and formulated a biochemical strain or media “recipe” they hope to commercialize.

But a recipe derived from plant-based feedstocks is just the start. Entrepreneurs and companies must scale-up their formulations into larger and larger quantities at a test facility like IBRL in order to ensure their process works at larger scales.

“Entrepreneurs and companies come to us because they don’t have access to or experience running pilot scale equipment like ours. Usually, they’ve run their formulation in a glass reactor, totaling a couple of liters. We can scale it up from there, working closely with the client,” explained Beth.

IBRL can go bigger – much, much bigger – providing infrastructure and equipment that many entrepreneurs, start-ups, and even mid-sized companies cannot afford.

“We are a fee for service facility,” said Beth, which means even the smallest companies can get access to their impressive array of equipment which would otherwise cost millions to develop independently.

A peek inside the lab

The facility, filled with enormous metal vats and a labyrinth of pipes, is also incredibly flexible – akin to a giant Lego set. Equipment stands on casters, ready to be wheeled across the facility and reconnected as necessary to meet each client’s unique testing needs.

“We often refer to the lab as a giant playground,” said Beth. “And if we’re missing a specific unit required for operation, clients can send their equipment here, or we can lease equipment from vendors.”

“Our largest scale is a 1200-liter working volume and our largest tank is 2,400-liters,” said Beth. “If you are interested in a specific crop, our commodity processing lines are set up for about one to four bushels a day. So that’s up to about 200 kilos.”

IBRL can handle greater quantities as well.

“We’ve certainly been asked to do larger scale, and we’ve done so, batching formulations through our facility over multiple days,” added Beth.

IBRL: seeking support in order to boost the industry

This incredible array of infrastructure makes IBRL one of the largest bioprocessing facilities in the nation.

The six-month wait time to utilize some of IBRL’s equipment also illustrates the essential role the lab plays in the industry, but IBRL is eager to reduce that wait time.

Feasibility studies for a second laboratory building, which would be sited next door, have already begun. State and federal grants could prove especially helpful in accelerating the process.

Paired with the existing facility, the twin labs could create a powerful node of economic growth in central Illinois for this fast-growing sector.

In the four years the lab has been open, it has worked with more than 70 different companies.

“Many of those 70 clients have been with the IBRL team for three-plus years now. They stay with us long-term, launching a campaign with us one month and then returning to their home offices to assess the results. They may tweak the strains before returning for another iteration with us, or they return with a new formulation to test,” said Beth.

An expansion would allow IBRL to widen its scope of regular clients, serving as a local accelerator for an industry quickly becoming an economic growth engine in the Midwest.

IBRL is also feedstock agnostic, accepting every kind of agricultural feedstock and agricultural waste. That breadth of scope ensures IBRL’s work is supporting all types of farming communities.

With an expansion, “we are really hoping to serve more companies and to serve more clients. We need more 1,200-liter reactors. Then, we can say ‘yes’ to more entrepreneurs, to more companies, and speed their time to market,” said Beth.

“And we have the student interest to staff the new facility as well,” she added.

Training tomorrow’s bioeconomy workforce

The green chemistry and bio-manufacturing industry’s growth is creating impressive demand for excellent jobs – and in many cases, the American education system has not kept up.

At IBRL, students gain hands-on experience working with millions of dollars in the latest equipment while interacting with the scores of companies that utilize the facilities, creating powerful job-hunting leads.

“There are a lot of job postings relevant to the student training we do, illustrating the strong demand for our students for full-time jobs and careers. These range from startup companies through the multinationals. And they’re all looking for experience in some way, which we provide,” said Beth.

Job postings suggest new graduates of programs like IBRL can potentially see starting salaries from $60-80k a year. In some places, and with a little more experience, fermentation engineers like those participating in the IBRL program can make $120k annually.

Companies that have already hired IBRL graduates include well-known brand names at leading multinationals such as ADM, Cargill, Kraft-Heinz, and PepsiCo as well as leading startup companies in the space such as The EVERY Company, Motif FoodWorks, and Amyris.

Testing tomorrow’s greatest plant-based products

In addition to training workforce for those well-known food companies, IBRL works with several companies in non-food applications:

• The multinational chemical company DSM, which is utilizing IBRL gear to test upcycling of plant waste material,

• Tandem Repeat, a synthetic biology company creating polymer alternatives to petroleum plastic products by utilizing natural inputs,

• Hyfé Foods, which is using the nutrients from agricultural waste streams to create feedstocks for sustainable products.

Educating policymakers, too

Beth is IBRL’s representative on the Plant Based Products Council’s Advisory Board, providing the group outside counsel and guidance.

“PBPC has taken a lead role in advancing key policy proposals that will support the whole industry. The group serves as a neutral third party, successfully navigating the industry’s needs and bringing the right people to the table,” said Beth.

“PBPC can speak to government in a way that is really helpful, especially to research institutions like ourselves, who cannot engage in the same way,” she added.

Written By: https://pbpc.com/plant-based-leaders-ibrl/

 

Our current practices of food production use significant amounts of water, land, and other resources, all while generating various agricultural wastes. But food production is so essential that there’s not much we can do about these inherent costs. Or is there?

What if we could dramatically reduce the amount of resources needed to make food? What if we could produce food with nothing more than air, water, and electricity? While it sounds futuristic, bioengineering professor Ting Lu and his team of co-PIs–including professors Paul Kenis (chemical and biomolecular engineering), Mohan Sankaran (nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering), Christopher Rao (chemical and biomolecular engineering), Yong-Su Jin (food science and human nutrition), Keith Cadwallader (food science and human nutrition), and Vijay Singh (agricultural and biological engineering)–believe that this reality might be closer than it seems.

With a steadily increasing global population, a decreasing amount of arable land, and potential production instabilities in the future due to climate change, it is becoming more and more important to identify new ways to produce food. Creating a food source that can be generated anywhere on the planet with minimal resources is the kind of innovation that could make a difference in the future of sustainability.

“These types of projects are really exciting because they give us a challenge to think out of the box,” said Lu. “Can we really turn air, water, and electricity into safe, palatable, and nutritious food? It’s a very ambitious goal, but one that we are looking forward to meeting.”

After successfully applying for and receiving a four-year, $10.4 million research grant from the U.S. government agency Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Lu and his fellow co-PIs are ready to get to work on their three-ingredient food.

“The process requires several steps that are each in their own right complex, and then all the steps must be integrated to work together,” said nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering professor Mohan Sankaran, a fellow co-PI on the project. “Some of those steps are to ‘fix’ the N2 and CO2 in air to compounds such as ammonia and acetate. Next, these compounds are fed to microbes to produce biomass containing the proteins and carbohydrates that make up food.”

Currently, Lu envisions this food as more of a supplement than a full meal, with plans to structure this new source of nutrients into three different forms: a shake, a gel, and a dried jerky. Lu has a goal of producing 100 grams of food next year, and a broader goal of one day seeing production plants that create the food on a larger scale.

Not only is this proposed technology faster in food production and better for the environment than our current methods, but it’s highly portable. If this method takes off, food could be possibly produced in the South Pole as easily in the Midwest. Inhabitants of remote islands, mountains, rainforests and beyond could all produce their own food, regardless of land or other natural resources.

But even a food source that’s a scientific marvel has to taste good. “Flavor quality is the main determinant of food acceptance by the consumer,” said co-PI and food science and nutrition professor Keith Cadwallader. “In our project we are taking a practical approach by designing systems that create a variety of generic flavors that mimic certain classes or types of popular flavors, such as “sweet aromatic”, “fruity-berry” and “savory-meaty” flavors.”

It’s just one more element of this three-ingredient food to look forward to: it will come in a wide range of flavors, from sweet to savory, no matter what form it takes.“Our goal is not to make a food with a single flavor but to make foods that can be easily customized for consumer preferences, like when we choose vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate flavors in ice cream shops,” said fellow project co-PI and food science and nutrition professor Yong-Su Jin.

Scale-up of this project and end-to-end integration will be conducted by agricultural and biological engineering professor Vijay Singh, another co-PI on this project. This work is being conducted in his lab and at the Integrated Bioprocessing Research laboratory (IBRL), a translational research facility at the University of Illinois.

“At IBRL, we have most of the bioprocess equipment required to conduct full demonstration of this exciting project creating food from air, water and electricity,” said professor Singh, who also serves as Executive Director of IBRL.

Clearly a project of this scale requires expertise on many levels. Lu was quick to point out that their project is a true team effort that benefits tremendously from the breadth of research and collaborative culture of the University.

“I am so grateful to be a member of this interdisciplinary research team,” said Jin. “Our UIUC team is the only one comprising all team members from a single research institution among the DARPA awardees.”

It’s rare to have the opportunity to work on a project that incorporates so many disciplines and could one day have an effect on such a basic element of our everyday lives, and Lu is eager to see the project through.

“If successful, our project will have a potentially transformative impact,” Lu said. “We’re grateful to DARPA for this opportunity and excited to be able to work on something that we feel special.”

By: Bethan Owen

I am Anto Nirmal, a Bioprocessing and Bioenergy graduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Over the summer, I worked as a Process Development Intern at Forge Biologics, a gene therapy manufacturing company. This opportunity provided a more in-depth understanding of how industrial research works and confirmed my interest in it. I was able to connect with a lot of people and learn more from their experiences. Through my internship experience, I understood the importance of planning and time management while designing and performing multiple research studies. The satisfaction I got out of this internship was immense and I enjoyed working in a lab setup. As a part of the internship program, we volunteered at Mid-Ohio Collective Foodbank, where we worked as a team supporting the initiative. The overall experience was fruitful, and the memory would be cherished forever. After finishing my undergraduate in Biotechnology, I decided to do my master’s in Bioprocessing and Bioenergy to learn and gain more skills related to the processing of bioproducts. I also believe that doing this program unlocks my career aspirations that are otherwise blocked, enabling me to be an asset when I enter the workforce.

To find out more about the Professional Science Master’s in Bioprocessing and Bioenergy, use this link.

I interned at Neste US this summer in Houston, TX. Neste produces renewable diesel (RD) and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for companies across the globe, and they are an active participant in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) market. I applied for an internship with Neste because I am studying bioenergy here at UIUC, and I want to work in the renewable fuels industry after graduating.

I was placed on the Feedstock Growth team, whose responsibilities include researching potential sourcing partners and investigating future feedstocks that meet their technical and sustainability standards. I loved talking with all the members on the team and hearing about their roles, the keys that make the team successful, and learning about where the feedstock market is heading in the future. My goals for the summer were twofold. The first was to create dynamic dashboards that track several feedstocks in the US, like used cooking oil, corn oil, and animal fats. We incorporated supply and demand data, export figures, and historical prices, and combined them with market research forecasts. This data aggregation allows the Feedstock Growth team to visualize market trends in real time to assist with strategy and decision making. The second goal was to research commercial deep fryers to understand the innovations and technologies that would impact the used cooking oil market in the near future. Fryer companies are advertising reduced oil volume (ROV) fryers that would save restaurants 40%-50% of their cooking oil. I learned that many market dynamics would factor into ROV adsorption rates in the next 3-6 years.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Neste and in Houston. All the employees who worked in the office were really supportive and eager to answer any questions we had. All the interns hung out outside of work and got along really well. A highlight was Food Truck Thursday, where a new food truck would arrive and we’d all race down to try it. The internship also aligned with a visit from the CEO from Finland, and all the interns had a chance to meet him and tell him about our experiences and work progress. I’m now 100% committed to working at a place like Neste after graduating.

To find out more about the Professional Science Master’s in Bioprocessing and Bioenergy, use this link.

In June of 2022, IBRL received a generous donation of a filter press, from CSL Behring. This filter press will help create a more defined product by separating the solids and liquids and help allow multiple client projects to be run simultaneously in IBRL’s pilot plant. Another benefit of the filter press is that it can be tuned to client needs. The new filter press is housed in IBRL. The IBRL staff would like to say thank you to CSL Behring company for your wonderful contribution and cannot wait to use it for our future projects. 

URBANA, Ill. – Fermentation is a crucial manufacturing step for many industries, including food, feed, cosmetics, and fuel. The fermentation process converts agricultural feedstocks to valuable materials with the use of microorganisms such as yeast and bacteria. It provides ingredients for products ranging from meat and dairy substitutes to cosmetics made without animal proteins.

The fermentation field is growing rapidly, and companies need trained employees to manage the equipment and technical processes. That’s why the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory (IBRL) at the University of Illinois recently shared its expertise on fermentation in an intensive short course for industry practitioners.

The three-day course welcomed 25 participants from 10 companies.

Presenters included IBRL staff, faculty specialists from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and The Grainger College of Engineering, and industry representatives. The course covered topics including types of fermentation, process modeling, and scale-up considerations.

“IBRL’s unique business model of connecting companies with academia and education makes us the perfect host for courses geared toward industry representatives. There is so much knowledge in IBRL and the University of Illinois faculty, and we are helping find new and innovative ways to transfer that knowledge and help more companies grow successfully,” says Vijay Singh, executive director of IBRL and distinguished professor of bioprocessing.

While fermentation courses are offered at other institutions, many of them are mostly theoretical. At IBRL, all participants got hands-on experience running pilot-scale fermentation and downstream purification equipment.

“The hands-on portion of the course was extremely useful. It is far easier to imagine the process when you can see the equipment firsthand,” says Kathryn Kruziki, principal engineer at General Probiotics.

“The course gave a nice range of information from strain development, bench scale fermentation, and transfer to pilot scale. It also discussed practical considerations as you go from pilot to industrial scale, including an extremely useful talk on economic modeling. I felt it covered a lot of ground effectively,” she adds.

General Probiotics, a Minnesota-based startup company, cooperates with IBRL as part of BioMADE, a research program funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. BioMADE encompasses multiple projects and partners conducting research on bio-industrial manufacturing technologies.

“We are developing engineered probiotic bacteria for poultry and are now at a stage in which we need to scale up production for FDA trials and verify the economic feasibility at an industrial scale. We thought the course could be an excellent way for us to progress our know-how in these areas,” Kruziki says. “The course strengthened our confidence in IBRL and our desire to work with them on future projects.”

Several of the companies whose employees attended the course have ongoing collaborations with IBRL, and some are donating equipment or materials.

“CSL Behring is donating a filter press to IBRL, and Primient, a global supplier to the fermentation industry, aids in sourcing critical fermentation substrates in this challenging and ever-evolving economic environment,” Singh says. “We greatly appreciate these industry contributions that help us more effectively support the expanding bioprocessing industry.”

IBRL plans to offer the fermentation course annually. Those interested in participating can contact Beth Conerty, IBRL associate director of business development, at bconerty@illinois.edu for more information.

Source: Vijay Singh, vsingh@illinois.edu

Media contacts: Marianne Stein, 217-244-2313, mfstein@illinois.edu; Beth Conerty, 217-300-4543,  bconerty@illinois.edu

Date: June 2, 2022