Bioconversion of Brown Seaweed Into Mixed Ketones Through the Carboxylate Platform Processing

The Carboxylate Platform, also known as the MixAlco^TM process, is an acidogenic fermentation process using mixed culture inoculums, which offers several advantages compared to conventional bioprocessing, such as: non-sterile fermentation, the use of inexpensive tanks, adaptability to a wide variety of feedstocks (polysaccharides, proteins and lipids) and no need for added enzyme. The mixed acids product of the fermentation then can be converted into mixed ketones through neutralization and a thermo-decomposition process. Finally, mixed alcohols can be generated by hydrogenating the mixed ketones.

Brown seaweed, one of the most abundant biomass resources in the world, was selected as the feedstock in our project, for which mixed ketones are treated as the final product. The fermentation condition of 37 ℃ with lime pretreatment was demonstrated as being the most efficient out of different combinations of temperature (~25 or 37 ℃), and pretreatment (lime pretreatment or none). Fermentation products from brown seaweed were converted into mixed ketones successfully.