1,2-propanediol is a bulk chemical with an annual market worth 2.5 billion Euros, having applications in unsaturated polyester resins, de-icing liquids and personal care products, and currently mainly produced by a chemical process relying on crude-oil derived propylene as a raw material.
As an alternative to this petrochemical process, we have combined strain and process engineering to develop an industrial process for the renewable production of MPG from sucrose (support from Bpifrance, BIO2CHEM project[1]) and are now turning to second generation sugars made out of wood (Joint Development Agreement with UPM, Finland[2], and support from the EU, BBI-JU ValChem project[3]).
This presentation will focus on the different steps that enabled us to obtain an Escherichia coli strain producing MPG from sucrose with high yield, titer and productivity, using METEX cutting-edge and integrated technological platforms, and appropriate strategies such as adaptive evolution and rational metabolic engineering. Some results of fermentation scale-up (from lab to pilot scale), feedstock diversification (from white beet sugar to cane molasses), and downstream processing allowing the production of highly pure MPG complying with market specifications, will also be presented.