Multi-scale Exploration of the Technical, Economic, and Environmental Dimensions of Bio-based Chemical Production

In recent years, bio-based chemicals have gained traction as a sustainable alternative topetrochemicals. In order to maximize the impacts of researches and investments, there is a need to focus on the most promising combinations of feedstocks, biochemical products, and bioprocesses. To address this issue, we developed a multiscale framework that integrates modeling approaches across scales of cellular metabolism, bioreactor, bioprocess, and economy/ecosystem, and is able to simultaneously assess biological, technological, economic and environmental feasibility of different production scenarios. Using our framework, we assess the production of two major polymer precursors (1,3-propanediol and 3-hydroxypropionic acid) from two biomass feedstocks (corn-based glucose and soy-based glycerol) using two host organisms (E.coli and S. cerevisiae). We explore the sustainability and economic impacts of a variety of policies and practices (e.g. land-usage, energy source mixture, CO₂ emission cap), as well as trade offs between different objectives (e.g. profits for different sectors, emission minimization) for key stakeholders involved in the biochemical value chain (agriculture, energy, and biotechnology sectors).