(upbeat techno music)
-: My name is Rajib Saha,
I'm an assistant professor from the Department
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
here at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
-: I'm Doctor Mark Wilkins.
I'm a professor in Biological Systems Engineering
and in Food Science and Technology.
And then I also am the director
of the Industrial Agricultural Products Center.
Our project is to seek
to produce succinic acid which is
not only a food ingredient but it also can be
used in plastics manufacturing
and then other uses as well.
We're trying to make that from corn fibers
so, you know, a corn kernel mostly consists of starch.
Also has some protein and oil
but it also has fiber and right now the fiber
is essentially fed to cattle
and that's pretty much it's only use.
So what we're trying to do is and value to that fiber
by producing a really valuable product from it.
-: We are interested in converting low-value products like
corn stover into high-value products using microorganisms.
Taking advantage of their biochemical capabilities.
One example is the organism actinobacillus synagens
which is isolated from the rumen of cattle.
And we like that organism because it can use
a variety of different sugars found in corn fiber.
It will then convert that
low-value product into a high-value product
which is called succinate
and succinate can be used for all kinds of things including
bioplastics and a variety of chemicals
can be made from succinate.
And so actinobacillus synagens
naturally produces a lot of succinate.
In the lab, as it makes all that succinate,
which is an acid, succinic acid,
the PH of the media drops, drops a lot,
to where the organism can no longer live.
And so what we are working on in this lab is then
giving the organism the ability
to survive in that low PH
as it's making lots of succinate for us by
engineering it to maintain its internal PH
at a close to seven while its external PH
can be down around four.
And this is also very useful for downstream processing.
-: We are entrusted to make
process, or processes more efficient.
In the future we don't want to limit ourself
to a three liter, ten liter reactor, rather,
we'd be happy to tie this project up
with an existing facility, biochemical facility,
so that we can produce succinic acid in higher quantity.
Down the line, that's what I envision this project.
(bright guitar music)