Biomanufacturing Better Materials For A Post-Petroleum Future

Consider the room you are sitting in: From the injection-molded plastic of a computer mouse to the synthetic carpet fibers on the floor, you are surrounded by petroleum-derived products in your daily life. But what if there is a better way to produce the products we depend on with cleaner and greener materials? Biomanufacturing offers a way to use materials from nature to create the items we use every day. 

Checkerspot, a materials innovation company, is rethinking products from a molecular level. It is optimizing microbes to biomanufacture unique structural oils found in nature. The company has taken the technology it has built and turned it into a platform to bring us closer to a post-petroleum future.

The WING Platform 

Checkerspot’s point of entry into the commercial market was through outdoor recreation products. The company manufactures high-performance skis made from algae that allow it to build and optimize its WING platform. 

“We decided to brand our platform the WING platform, which obviously is a little bit of a play on words with the butterfly [the company’s logo]. And the reason why we wanted to brand it this way was because it always prompts the question: What is the WING platform?” says Charles Dimmler, co-founder and CEO of Checkerspot.

The WING platform enables the design process of new materials at the molecular level. Checkerspot engineers microalgae that can produce new molecular building blocks. These building blocks can be turned into new materials with novel physical properties. Then, the company builds these materials into parts and products that it prototypes and tests.

Making Better Products From Better Materials 

An essential part of the WING platform is the ability to do application and product development. “We have to be clear about the application or the product that ultimately a consumer or an industrial user is going to have. We are being very clear about how it is valuable for them,” says Dimmler.

Dimmler explains that they start with the problem they are going to solve for the consumer and work backwards to the technology and innovation. Biotechnology enables the product development process to work. 

Through biomanufacturing, Checkerspot creates monomers from oils found in nature. Big chemical and oil companies have not explored these plant-based oils because they are hard to scale. 

“These plants don't grow in the arable regions of the world, and they don't lend themselves to the current agro-economic complex that the world has,” says Dimmler. “You also can't find these monomers at any meaningful scale with ore from petroleum.”

Biotechnology gives Checkerspot access to genes from these plants that they can then use in a microbial expression system. Microbiology allows them to use fermentation-based processes to grow microalgae and produce them at a large scale and at a low cost. This translates to new and different physical and functional properties of materials made from these unique monomers.

 Checkerspot is currently commercializing three materials: a light-weight urethane-based composite (Algal Core), cast urethane (Algal Wall), and algal oil formulated into MiDori BioWick and sold in partnership with Beyond Surface Technologies to clothing brands worldwide.

Looking Ahead 

Checkerspot has been able to showcase its materials and WING platform by bringing outdoor recreation products like skis to market, but this is only the beginning. The platform has many other uses that the company is exploring.

 “There is a disconnect between consumer brands, materials, and ingredient suppliers. We innovate with design, building, testing, and rapid iteration. We can go from concept to market in a fraction of the time that other consumer brands do, and we can do it on a more cost-effective basis,” says Dimmler. 

Checkerspot wants to empower others with its technology, materials, and platform, so innovation can spread through the manufacturing industry. As the post-petroleum future gets closer, having access to technology that lets more companies innovate will be essential.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johncumbers/2021/11/08/biomanufacturing-better-materials-for-a-post-petroleum-future/?sh=59f7661f7ebb