A significant challenge for conversion researchers is the identification of economically viable target chemicals for bioproduction. Much of the previous and current work has focused on the bioproduction of existing commodity chemicals to replace petroleum-based production methods for these chemicals. In many cases, the cost comparison of producing these chemicals through a biological process is unfavorable compared to the petroleum-based process. This economic challenge suggests that an alternative avenue of investigation would be the identification of promising replacement chemicals and the biological means to produce these replacement chemicals. This project integrates genome scale metabolic models with retrobiosynthesis and biorefinery process models to assess promising replacement chemicals and guide the selection of new target molecules for bioproduction. This project looks beyond the traditional platform chemicals and leverages metabolic models to identify molecules that can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass with an economically competitive process.
