Public Funding for Holiferm Limited

There is growing industrial, consumer and regulatory demand for sustainable alternative ingredients for a range of everyday products, with a particular focus on surfactant-based formulations. The necessity of sustainable, bio-based materials for the future economy is emphasised under "Materials for the future economy", Innovate UK Materials and manufacturing vision 2050\. Bio-based replacements for fossil derived synthetic surfactants have existed since the 1990s, though current production processes are severely limited by: low productivity (<2 g/L/h), high energy demand and complex downstream processing, leading to a high price point in excesses of the cost of synthetic surfactants, hindering market adoption. Holiferm's technology and fermentation expertise enable a step change in biosurfactant production cost, allowing manufacturers of formulated products to overcome current adoption barriers, ultimately benefiting consumers. NetZeroSoph will provide a significant change in trajectory and accelerated progress towards Holiferm's strategic goal of achieving net zero sophorolipid biosurfactant production, enhancing their world leading sophorolipid production process and diversifying the portfolio of sophorolipid molecules through application of advanced fermentation technology, holistic process development and engineering biology approaches. This collaboration with Evolutor and The University of Manchester will yield circular, novel, sophorolipids with significantly reduced life cycle impacts and enhanced technoeconomics. Market need has been validated through discussion with end-users and distributors such as Sasol, Star Brands and Ingredients Plus, with this project expanding on Holiferm's success in constructing a flexible pilot plant and the recent commissioning of a 1000 tpa commercial demonstration sophorolipid production facility, providing in house capabilities for accelerated development and rapid scaleup/translation (building on/exploiting outputs of prior Innovate UK funding). NetZeroSoph will accelerate CR&D aligned with long-term strategy to drive down cost whilst achieving net zero manufacture, providing bio-based replacements for traditional synthetic surfactants in applications including household, laundry and personal care, establishing Holiferm as a world leading manufacturer of biosurfactants.

Harnessing biology to produce the chemicals, materials and fuels of the future (biomanufacturing) is expected to displace our unsustainable dependency on fossil fuels such as oil. One unaddressed problem is that biomanufacturing processes generate significant quantities of microbial waste which requires processing and safe disposal. This adds to the costs and energy use of biomanufacturing companies, reducing their economic viability and eroding their sustainability credentials. DeakinBio has recently developed a method to produce a sustainable bio-based alternative to ceramic tiles that involves the combination of organic biopolymers with inorganic powders such as calcium carbonate. In this project, we will explore the feasibility of using microbial waste generated through C3 Biotech's biomanufacturing processes as the organic component in our tiles. This collaboration is beneficial to C3 Biotech due to the potential of creating a valuable product from an unavoidable waste they produce, and for DeakinBio to secure a biopolymer source to produce their ceramic-like biocomposite materials. This project would therefore improve the circularity of both companies, and improve the viability and sustainability of biomanufacturing in the UK. The desired outcome of this collaboration would be a sustainable ceramic-like tile that has an 80-90% lower carbon footprint compared to conventional tiles by utilising microbial waste generated from C3 Biotech's biomanufacturing processes.

There is increasing industrial, regulatory and consumer sentiment towards to the use of greener alternatives for a range of everyday products with a particular focus on formulated non-food items (with over 73% of eco-consumers researching environmentally-friendly credentials of household cleaning and personal care products, compared to only 61% for food products, GlobalWebIndex, 2018). It is a key strategy for the government, associations and manufacturers to provide bio-based alternatives to surfactants as key components in such cleaning and formulated products. Bio-based and bio-manufactured replacements for synthetic surfactants (petroleum/vegetable/animal-derived) have existed since the 1990's, however, their current production process suffers from a range of limitations including low productivity (<2 gL-1h-1), high energy costs, high water usage, significant waste-water production and downstream processing requirements that lead to a high price point, limiting the full potential of market adoption. Building on success launching Holiferm's pilot plant and first commercial product launch with Mix ([https://www.mixcleangreen.co.uk][0] ), Holiferm will build a commercial demonstration plant for the production of sophorolipids (key target molecule in synthetic surfactant replacement activities in household cleaning and laundry applications) at a cost-effective price point with a facility capable of producing 1000tpa enabling a number of formulators to replace synthetic surfactants with biosurfactants in their products. Holiferm's technology enables a step-change in the cost of biosurfactant production, allowing manufacturers of formulated products to overcome current adoption barriers, passing savings onto potential users and consumers. This project will enable Holiferm to demonstrate both the technology and market at commercial scale whilst enabling formulators to switch over some products to biobased surfactants. This will facilitate building full commercial (20ktpa) plants and widespread adoption of biosurfactants to replace petrochemical surfactants over the coming years. Holiferm's technology is also inherently applicable to a range of fermentation process for biosurfactants and other molecules, of which the next molecules Holiferm is already working on in a JDA with BASF. This innovative solution has the potential for global exploitation in a range of key sectors and will reduce the environmental impact of synthetic surfactants whilst being cost-competitive. [0]: https://www.mixcleangreen.co.uk/

There is increasing industrial, regulatory and consumer sentiment towards to the use of greener alternatives for a range of everyday products with a particular focus on formulated non-food items (with over 73% of eco-consumers researching environmentally-friendly credentials of household cleaning and personal care products, compared to only 61% for food products, GlobalWebIndex, 2018). It is a key strategy for the government, associations and manufacturers to provide bio-based alternatives to surfactants as a key components in such cleaning and formulated products. Bio-based replacements for synthetic surfactants (petroleum/vegetable/animal-derived) have existed since the 1990's, however, their current production process suffers from a range of limitations including low productivity (<2 gL-1h-1), high energy costs, high water usage, significant waste-water production and downstream processing requirements that lead to a high price point, limiting the full potential of market adoption. Holiferm aims to test the feasibility of their larger-scale novel gravity separation technique by designing a demonstration plant for the production of sophorolipids (key target molecule in synthetic surfactant replacement activities in household cleaning and laundry applications) at a cost-effective price point with a facility capable of producing 1000t per annum before building an industrial-scale plant. Alongside this, The University of Manchester will undertake feedstock development work to reduce dependence on food-grade feedstocks, focussing on lower-grade or even waste-streams. Holiferm's technology enables a step-change in the cost of sophorolipid production, allowing manufacturers of formulated products to overcome current adoption barriers, passing savings onto potential users and consumers. Holiferm have engaged with Star Brands, a leading household cleaning and laundry care formulation company, to undertake initial preliminary formulation work, testing and validation to ensure market viability for material produced within the demonstration plant. With market need validated (through discussion with end-users such as Dow, Henkel, BASF and Star Brands) and building on a prior Innovate UK ICURe proof of concept study, this project will proceed to validate a pilot scale process. This novel solution has the potential to completely revolutionise the way in which sophorolipids are manufactured, allowing wide-scale adoption of biosurfactants through a reduction in price for low-value high-volume applications. Holiferm's technology is also inherently applicable to a range of biofermentation process for biosurfactants and other molecules including Mannosylerythritol Lipids (MELs) and Rhamnolipids, providing large cost saving potential. This innovative solution has the potential for global exploitation in a range key sectors and will reduce the environmental impact of synthetic surfactants whilst being cost-competitive.

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"For many applications biobased chemicals produced by fermentation have enhanced functionality compared to petrochemically derived products but are significantly more expensive to manufacture and are therefore only used in niche applications. Most surfactants in use in the cosmetic industry are currently oil-based irritants, and many in the agricultural market are toxic endocrine disruptors, with bans coming into place for some of these surfactants. There is also a strong customer driver for improved performance and green surfactants. We have developed a technique to reduce production costs for biobased chemicals produced by fermentation by around 40%. Fermentations use microorganisms to convert renewable raw materials into a biochemical product in a large stainless-steel vessel. During fermentation the bioproduct accumulates, causing mixing and other problems, and resulting in the fermentation having to be stopped. The novel gravity-based separation system we have developed can recover the product as it is produced, preventing the negative effects of product accumulation and allowing process intensification. The use of the technology can triple the output from a given vessel, reducing capital expenditure requirements 3x. This technology has been demonstrated fully for one biosurfactant product, sophorolipid, for which we have performed scale up trials in collaboration with several active companies. We are now scaling up the technology for industrial production and applying the technology across a whole range of lipid bioproducts. In this project, we aim to reach a pre-industrial validation of our technology with sophorolipid with a system configured for industrial use and a 750 l bioreactor. Whilst other integrated separation technologies have often been shown to be successful at lab scale, few are scaled up due to cost and complexity, and while we have already reached pilot scale a pre industrial validation will be another important milestone. We will also aim to demonstrate a 50% performance improvement with a second bioproduct, mannosylerithritol lipids, at laboratory scale, and generate a proof of principle, with a third product, rhamnolipids. As importantly, we will be building a team capable of delivering this project and subsequently developing a successful business. This will allow our company to be derisked to a sufficient extent to attract significant financial investment, as well as fully paying clients. This project contributes towards facilitating a move towards a circular bioeconomy and increased UK productivity in line with the UK bioeconomy and industrial strategies."