The impact of accelerating human industrial activities on the environment and climate are becoming increasingly clear. Petroleum-derived colorants used in consumer goods are of particular concern due to their toxicity profile, persistence, and tendency to leach into the environment. As more companies make the switch to bio-based/biodegradable plastics, greater access to bio-based dyes will be needed to enable the production of brightly colored bioplastics with no risk of environmental or human toxicity. Ourobio seeks to address this market opportunity by turning cheap, readily-available industrial byproducts into biodegradable pigments and a biodegradable polymer simultaneously. Our technology is unique in its ability to turn waste whey into non-toxic colored biodegradable plastic - also known as a masterbatch - in a single-step fermentation process, saving significant energy costs and water usage in comparison to typical masterbatch preparation. Ourobio (Transfoam LLC) was inspired by our founders' work on the 2019 UVA iGEM project and was spun out in March 2020 with the goal of reducing microplastic pollution and barriers to biodegradable plastic production. Building upon recent studies, Ourobio has shown that indigo (unmodified) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) can be co-produced from whey and that the two products can be co-extracted. Using SBIR Phase I funds, Ourobio will complete two objectives to demonstrate i) organic indigoid compounds will be biosynthesized from tryptophan in parallel with PHB production; and ii) PHA and indigoid compounds will be co-extracted to produce high-performance, biodegradable masterbatches. After benchtop validation, demonstration of our ability to produce multi-colored masterbatches on a larger scale (10 - 15L) will be performed in collaboration with Pow.bio, and material general in these runs will be tested alongside the Heritage Research Group. Ourobio will position itself as a manufacturer of specialty/colored biodegradable plastic masterbatches and licensor of our specialty biomanufacturing technologies. Achieving these objectives will position Ourobio to begin delivering commercial pilot volumes of material to our first customers. As indicated in our letters of intent, we plan to source whey from Meadow Creek Dairy and work with Helian polymers to compound our masterbatches into high-performance dyed PHA compounds for the $3B biodegradable plastics industry. Successful implementation of our technology will help the biodegradable plastic industry offer a more appealing and wider selection of low-footprint, fully-biodegradable plastic products, and will contribute to improved access to PCB- and heavy metal-free biodegradable plastic dyeing agents.
