Decarbonizing our economy in the fight against climate change requires a major overhaul of all kinds of production processes to make them as sustainable as possible. Environmentally friendly chemicals used as raw materials for all kinds of products are an area of focus for British start-up Deep Blue Biotech.
The biotech startup, founded in May 2023, is building a business centered on photosynthesis-based biomanufacturing, which can produce chemicals in a more environmentally friendly way than traditional production methods such as refining fossil fuels. is building.
The company also notes that because the genetically modified microorganisms it uses to make chemicals only require the relatively cheap raw materials of light, water, and carbon dioxide, the method costs the same as making traditional chemicals. claims that it can be achieved.
This is in contrast to precision fermentation, another microbial-based production method that also requires more expensive raw materials (such as sugar), the magazine said.
cyanobacteria
Deep Blue Biotech uses genetic engineering and computational modeling to create strains of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae (note, however, that these single-celled microorganisms are actually prokaryotes, not algae). are studied and are sometimes known colloquially as “bacteria.” The “pond scum” is sent to a microscopic green chemical production plant.
The company says its methodology is “net positive” in terms of carbon emissions. This means that because cyanobacteria consume greenhouse gases during photosynthesis, the process removes more CO2 than it produces.
They also claim that biotechnological approaches can produce more effective chemicals. The company wants to improve upon the industry's early attempts to formulate more sustainable (chemical) ingredients, which often resulted in products that were less effective and difficult to sell to consumers. .
Deep Blue Biotech's pitch is that these are “green chemicals” that deliver both sustainability and performance.
“The first generation of green chemicals, unfortunately, just didn't work,” co-founder Manuel Rios, former vice president of sustainable design at Unilever, told TechCrunch. “They were just more expensive and less effective. We need to counteract that effect over the past decade.”
“What we're starting to see in synthetic biology is that thanks to the creation and design of molecules in general, we can actually aim for functionality, which is something we haven't been able to do in the past. ” he also tells us.
“So we are developing a new generation of sustainable materials, a new generation of green chemicals that are environmentally friendly, but primarily functional. That is what we want to create. ”
Highly cost-effective ingredients
Depending on the industry you're targeting, the cost of manufacturing a chemical can also be a key selling point, Rios says. The startup uses computational modeling to determine which chemicals are cost-effective candidates for new production methods.
“We have chosen chemicals that cost over $2,000 to $3,000 per kilogram, which allows us to earn a healthy profit while offering a discount compared to existing technologies,” he suggested. I will.
Deep Blue Biotech is starting with a sales pitch aimed at beauty and cosmetics companies. Rios said the textile industry is likely to follow suit, marketing more environmentally friendly textile dyes to apparel manufacturers.
The first substance produced is hyaluronic acid, which is an ingredient in a variety of skin care products and beauty treatments, and can also be used for medical purposes.
“We're not going to save the world with cosmetics, but…what we're trying to do, especially in the cosmetics industry, is what we believe in.” [it] “We have the ability to change perceptions,” he added, “and we believe that partners with high levels of engagement, such as those in the beauty industry, will enable us.” [to be] It's more effective. ”
Cosmetics also offers a faster route to market than some other applications that could have been focused on.
Rios notes that the team initially considered producing biofuels, but decided it would take too long to move from the lab to the market. He emphasized that he hopes to make a positive impact sooner rather than later.
Rios suggests that while there has been interest in photosynthetic biomanufacturing (including the production of biofuels), commercialization has been hampered by low production rates. The startup credits its breakthrough to the use of a relatively recently discovered, highly productive strain of cyanobacteria.
“The main advantage of this strain is that it is 3x faster [growing] It is seven times more productive than any other cyanobacterial strain ever discovered. So it's breaking down barriers in terms of commercialization,” he suggests.
pre-seed
It's still early days for Deep Blue Biotech, which has announced an $800,000 pre-seed round to continue building toward a commercial MVP (in this context, a production “small-scale demonstrator”).
The round was led by Sustainable Ventures with participation from One Planet Capital, PCSI, and SFC Capital. This also includes two grants from Innovate UK.
The funding will be used to launch an initial paid pilot and enter into co-development agreements with customers to incorporate Deep Blue Biotech's hyaluronic acid into their products. (Mr. Rios said he has signed several letters of intent with cosmetics companies he hopes will be future clients, including his former employer.)
Additionally, they plan to use the funds to find a second material, perhaps the aforementioned textile dye.
Rios said some of the funding will also go towards patent applications, and acknowledged that the company intends to take steps to ensure its approach is defensible. Plans also include growing the team to expand the company's expertise in bioprocess engineering, he says.
“We are in the experimental phase because we are doing scale-up and genetic engineering in parallel,” he says.
“Any vertical [we target] “There would have been a different commercial strategy,” he added. “But at the end of the day, scaling up this technology gives us a very clear competitive advantage compared to other technologies, firstly due to the fact that downstream processing is very simple.”
He also suggests that having a “modular” production process is another key component that can support rapid scaling. Photobioreactors are used to create a suitable environment for culturing cyanobacteria. Unlike the stainless steel tanks common in precision fermentation systems, these machines have clear tubes that let in light, allowing light-sensitive microorganisms to feed and grow.
Rios says capacity can be easily expanded by adding more tubes. “The way the systems are interconnected is batch-based,” he says, adding: [partners] They have this ability. ”
As for competitors, he cited as “interesting” the name of Microphyte, a French biotech that has been researching microalgae for many years and signed a strategic alliance with cosmetics giant L'Oreal in 2022. But their focus is “a little different,” he suggests.
One company he mentioned specifically working on cyanobacteria and using the same strain is Australia-based Bondi Bio.
“One of our advantages is that we know what buttons were right to push in the industry,” Rios added about his company's positioning in the market. “So we engineered a specific hyaluronic acid…that's what we knew [would] Low molecular weight hyaluronic acid with specific properties that is gaining attention very rapidly on the market [of high skin penetration]”