By applying metabolic engineering tools and strategies to engineer synthetic enzyme pathways, the number and diversity of commodity and specialty chemicals that can be derived directly from renewable feedstocks is rapidly and continually expanding. This of course includes a number of monomer building-block chemicals that can be used to produce replacements to many conventional plastic materials...

Bernal suggested that clays might have played a significant role in primitive earth through the process of concentration and adsorption of the biologically formed biomonomers and thus protecting them against hydrolytic fission.Adsorption of adenine was studied in presence of montmorillonite clay with or without cations Ca+,Cu+,Mg+.Studies carried out have shown that adsorption of adenine was de...

Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is a ubiquitous molecule in the Universe. It is a compound that is easily produced in significant yields in prebiotic simulation experiments using a reducing atmosphere. HCN can spontaneously polymerise under a wide set of experimental conditions. It has even been proposed that HCN polymers could be present in objects such as asteroids, moons, planets and, in particular, ...

Unfortunately, even the most detailed studies of the ancient rock record are unlikely to reveal the how of life’s beginnings. Because all biomonomers and biopolymers are geochemically unstable, it is implausible that evidence of intermediate stages in the emergence of life could be preserved in ancient rocks. As to the timing of life’s origin, the geosciences can provide only a partial answer—p...

Bio-based isobutantol is a sustainable 'drop in' substitute for petroleum-based fuels. However, well-studied production routes, such as the Ehrlich pathway, have yet to be commercialized despite more than a century of research. The more versatile bacterial valine catabolism may be a competitive alternate route producing not only an isobutanol precursor but several carboxylic acids with applicat...

The term “biopolymers” usually describes polymers produced in a natural way by living species. Their molecular backbones are composed of repeating units of saccharides, nucleic acids, or amino acids and sometimes various additional chemical side chains contributing also to their functionalities. If the largest part of biopolymers is extracted from biomass, such as polysaccharides from cellulose...

Furfural is one of the most promising chemical platforms with bright perspective with respect to the production of biobased chemicals and fuels from lignocellulosic material. Globally, the majority of this biomass derived chemical is converted into furfuryl alcohol, a building block in polymers industry. The vapor-phase hydrogenation of furfural over copper species dispersed on two types of sil...