Starch Pros

September 23^rd 2021

Cell-free chemoenzymatic starch synthesis from carbon dioxide.

Chinese scientists recently reported a de novo route for artificial starch synthesis from carbon dioxide (CO2) for the first time. Relevant results are published in Science on Sept. 24.

The new route makes it possible to shift the mode of starch production from traditional agricultural planting to industrial manufacturing, and opens up a new technical route for synthesizing complex molecules from CO2.

Starch is the major component of grain as well as an important industrial raw material. At present, it is mainly produced by crops such as maize by fixing CO2 through photosynthesis. This process involves about 60 biochemical reactions as well as complex physiological regulation. The theoretical energy conversion efficiency of this process is only about 2%.

Strategies for the sustainable supply of starch and use of CO2 are urgently needed to overcome major challenges of mankind, such as the food crisis and climate change. Designing novel routes other than plant photosynthesis for converting CO2 to starch is an important and innovative S&T mission and will be a significant disruptive technology in today’s world.

To address this issue, scientists at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (TIB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) designed a chemoenzymatic system as well as an artificial starch anabolic route consisting of only 11 core reactions to convert CO2 into starch.

This route was established by a “building block” strategy, in which the researchers integrated chemical and biological catalytic modules to utilize high-density energy and high-concentration CO2 in a biotechnologically innovative way.

The researchers systematically optimized this hybrid system using spatial and temporal segregation by addressing issues such as substrate competition, product inhibition, and thermodynamical adaptation.

The artificial route can produce starch from CO2 with an efficiency 8.5-fold higher than starch biosynthesis in maize, suggesting a big step towards going beyond nature. It provides a new scientific basis for creating biological systems with unprecedented functions.

“According to the current technical parameters, the annual production of starch in a one-cubic-meter bioreactor theoretically equates with the starch annual yield from growing 1/3 hectare of maize without considering the energy input,” said Cai Tao, lead author of the study.

This work would open a window for industrial manufacturing of starch from CO2.

“If the overall cost of the process can be reduced to a level economically comparable with agricultural planting in the future, it is expected to save more than 90% of cultivated land and freshwater resources,” said MA Yanhe, corresponding author of the study.

In addition, it would also help to avoid the negative environmental impact of using pesticides and fertilizers, improve human food security, facilitate a carbon-neutral bioeconomy, and eventually promote the formation of a sustainable bio-based society.

TIB has focused on artificial starch biosynthesis and CO2 utilization since 2015. To carry out such demand-oriented S&T research, all kinds of resources for innovation have been gathered together and the integration of “discipline, task and platform” has been strengthened to achieve efficient coordination of research efforts.

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh4049

September 17^th 2021

Agrana announces €25m investment in Austrian plant capacity.

Austrian food company Agrana has announced a €25 million investment in additional capacity at its three starch factories.

The Agrana plant in Gmünd began receiving deliveries of starch potatoes last month, while wet corn processing has been underway in Aschach/Donau and Pischeldorf since 15 September.

Agrana’s plant in Gmünd is Austria’s only potato starch factory and the current investment for the existing site stands at €12 million to expand its drying facilities. The investment involves building a spraying tower – a drying plant for infant formula, maltodextrin and dried glucose syrup – in addition to installing a drum-drying plant for dehydrated potato products.
The starch potato campaign in Gmünd is estimated to last around 130 days, with completion in early January. Approximately 250,000 metric tons have been contracted for this coming season.

Agrana is currently investing around €13 million at its Aschach site to expand its capacity for processing special corn varieties. A total of around 500,000 metric tons of corn – with the gradual introduction of more special corn varieties such as waxy and organic corn – are processed annually at the Aschach plant.

Source: https://www.agrana.com/en/pr/all-press-releases/news-detail/campaign-start-processing-at-starch-factories-well-underway

September 15^th 2021

France’s Tereos to sell Chinese starch business to Wilmar’s YKA.

French sugar group Tereos is selling its minority stake in two Chinese starch joint ventures to Yihai Kerry Arawana Holdings (YKA), the Chinese subsidiary of Singapore’s Wilmar International, the group said on Wednesday.

French sugar group Tereos is selling its minority stake in two Chinese starch joint ventures to Yihai Kerry Arawana Holdings 300999.SZ (YKA), the Chinese subsidiary of Singapore’s Wilmar International WLIL.SI, the group said on Wednesday.

It has been reported in June that Tereos, the world’s second largest sugar maker in volume, was in advanced talks with Wilmar to sell its minority stake in their joint activities as part of a wider shift in strategy after a change in top management late last year.

“Tereos cooperative group announced its intent to refocus on its three main activities and reduce its debt,” Tereos said in a statement.

“In this context, Tereos announces that it is divesting its 49% stakes in two Chinese starch joint ventures initiated in 2012 and 2013 to its joint venture partner, the YKA Group,” it added.

Tereos has activities in sugar, alcohol and starch markets. It is one of the largest producers of ethanol in Brazil.

A company spokesperson declined to give financial details of the agreement.

The transaction with YKA Group is subject to antitrust authorities’ approval, Tereos said.

Tereos reported a debt of 2.7 billion euros ($3.2 billion) at the end of June, for annual sales of around 4.3 billion euros.

Source: https://tereos.com/en/our-news/

August 31^st 2021

Increasing sugar availability for oil synthesis.

A team from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has bred a plant that produces more oil by manipulating the availability of sugar for oil synthesis. The team, led by BNL’s John Shanklin, achieved these results in using leaves of the fast-growing plant Arabidopsis, to mimic stem cells of plants like energycane and Miscanthus.

The work is part of a University of Illinois-led biosystems design project called Renewable Oil Generated with Ultra-productive Energycane (ROGUE) to engineer two of the most productive American biomass crops—energycane and Miscanthus—to accumulate an abundant and sustainable supply of oil that can be used to produce biodiesel, biojet fuel, and bioproducts.

The current project, “Mobilizing vacuolar sugar increases vegetative triacylglycerol accumulation,” builds on earlier work the Shanklin group published in 2017. That work showed that simultaneously impairing the export of sugar from leaves while blocking starch synthesis diverts sugars produced by photosynthesis towards fatty acid and oil synthesis.

“The novel aspect of this work was to minimize sugar accumulation in a large cellular storage compartment called the vacuole,” said Sanket Anaokar, a research associate at BNL. “Our approach was to block sugar movement into the vacuole and maximize its export. When these genetic manipulations were made to plants that are also blocked in starch synthesis, the cell channeled the extra sugar into oil.”

Anaokar went on to explain that an unexpected benefit of the approach the group took was that some of the remobilized sugar lessened the growth delays usually seen when the amount of exported sugar from the leaves and starches is decreased. The group will take what they’ve learned in their work with Arabidopsis and share it with other ROGUE researchers, speeding up the innovation cycle.

“It is far more difficult and time consuming to make multiple gene manipulations in energycane, whereas with Arabidopsis we can rapidly develop and test different genetic and molecular biology modifications to identify the most effective combinations,” said Shanklin, BNL Biology Department Chair and ROGUE researcher. “Once we validate an approach using our model system, we can move that knowledge over to fellow ROGUE researchers to deploy in the slowergrowing biomass crop plants.”

Shanklin’s research is just one of the ways ROGUE is working to increase the availability of sustainable biofuels and reduce the use of petrochemicals. “This proof of concept in the model plant Arabidopsis now shows us this is well worth moving into energycane and Miscanthus as a key step in making these viable sources of large amounts of oil for conversion into biodiesel and biojet fuel,” said ROGUE Director Stephen Long, Ikenberry Endowed University Chair of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at Illinois’ Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.

Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.708902/full

August 24^th 2021

First CRISPR-edited wheat grown in Europe to be planted this autumn.

UK research institute Rothamsted Research, a pioneer of GM crop trials since the 1990s, has been granted permission by Defra to run a series of field trials of wheat that has been genome edited.

The Hertfordshire-based experiments will be the first field trials of CRISPR edited wheat anywhere in the UK or Europe.

The wheat has been edited to reduce levels of the naturally occurring amino acid, asparagine, which is converted to the carcinogenic processing contaminant, acrylamide, when bread is baked or toasted.

The ultimate aim of the project is to produce ultra-low asparagine, non-GM wheat, says project leader Professor Nigel Halford.

“Acrylamide has been a very serious problem for food manufacturers since being discovered in food in 2002. It causes cancer in rodents and is considered ‘probably carcinogenic’ for humans. It occurs in bread and increases substantially when the bread is toasted, but is also present in other wheat products and many crop-derived foods that are fried, baked, roasted or toasted, including crisps and other snacks, chips, roast potatoes and coffee.

“We believe that asparagine levels can be reduced substantially in wheat without compromising grain quality. This would benefit consumers by reducing their exposure to acrylamide from their diet, and food businesses by enabling them to comply with regulations on the presence of acrylamide in their products.

“That is a long-term goal, however, and this project aims to assess the performance of the wheat plants in the field and measure the concentration of asparagine in the grain produced under field conditions.”

During development in the lab, researchers ‘knocked out’ the asparagine synthetase gene, TaASN2.

Asparagine concentrations in the grain of the edited plants were substantially reduced compared with un-edited plants, with one line showing a more than 90 % reduction, according to project scientist Dr Sarah Raffan.

“This new trial will now measure the amount of asparagine in the grain of the same wheat when grown in the field, and assess other aspects of the wheat’s performance, such as yield and protein content.”

The plan is for a project of up to five years, ending in 2026, with plants being sown in September/October each year and harvested the following September. Funding is in place for the first year, and additional support is being sought for the subsequent years.

The edited plants will be grown alongside wheat in which asparagine synthesis has been affected using the ‘old-fashioned’ method of chemically-induced mutation.

This technique has been widely used in plant breeding since the mid-20th century but is not targetable in the way that CRISPR is and results in random mutations throughout the genome.

In contrast, CRISPR makes small changes to a target gene, in this case to knock that gene out so that a functional protein is no longer made from it. The process initially involves genetic modification to introduce genes required for the CRISPR process into the plant.

Once the edit has been made the GM part can be removed from the plants by conventional plant breeding methods over a few generations. The greater numbers of plants that can be grown in the field will speed up that process, says Professor Halford.

“The larger number of plants we can have in the field trial compared with a glasshouse will make it easier to identify plants that are no longer GM. This means that the first year of the trial will have plants that are both GE and GM but by the third year of the trial we expect them to be GE only.”

Despite the differences between genome editing with CRISPR and GM, genome edited plants are currently treated in the same way as GM under EU regulations, essentially blocking the use of a technology that is gaining official approval in many other parts of the world.

The hope is that the current UK Government consultation on this issue will lead to new legislation in the UK, allowing genome edited food products, carefully regulated, to be available to consumers.

News of this new trial will likely be welcomed by the food industry, where acrylamide is classed as a processing contaminant which requires close monitoring under EU law.

Professor Halford said: “Current regulations on acrylamide include ‘benchmark levels’ for its concentration in different food types and require food businesses to monitor their products for its presence. It looks likely that these regulations will be strengthened, with the EU moving towards the introduction of maximum levels above which it would be illegal to sell a food product. Other regulatory authorities are likely to follow suit.”

Source: https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/genome-edited-wheat-field-trial-gets-go-ahead-uk-government

September 28^th 2021

A Low-Cost Instrument for Estimating the Starch Content of Cassava Roots Based on the Measurement of RF Return Loss.

Abstract.

The problem of simply and reliably estimating starch content of cassava roots in the field is addressed by the development of a low cost test instrument that measures return loss at radio frequencies using a coaxial probe. A clear relationship between starch content of cassava roots and the measured return loss of root samples at a specific frequency of 30 MHz is first verified experimentally. A prototype test instrument is then designed with goals of portability, low cost and simplicity of use. The test instrument displays starch content in 5 categories, from “low” to “high” using an array of 5 LEDs. The performance of the test instrument is experimentally verified in the field and a reliable correlation between cassava root starch content and LED indication is demonstrated.

Source: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/iccs/ and more specific https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10111197/1/Cassava%20Test%20Instrument%20-%20ISCAS%202020.pdf

July 20^th 2021

Gurgaon-based agency begins making biopolymer from corn starch.

Gurgaon-based Hello-Tech Worldwide, a expertise sourcing supplier within the discipline of plastics and packaging, has come out with a plant-based bio-compostable polymer. The biopolymer, made out of corn starch, can change single- and multiple-use plastic merchandise.
“Corn starch is the principle ingredient within the polymer, which is biodegradable. It’s 100 per cent compostable and might change plastic bottles, straws, cups, disposable cutlery and polybags,” mentioned Mukul Sareen, Director, Enterprise Improvement, Hello-Tech Worldwide.

Bio-compostable product

The bio-compostable polymer, branded as Dr. Bio, has acquired the approval of the Institute of Petrochemicals Expertise (previously Central Institute of Petrochemicals Expertise Engineering and Expertise) after checks.
“Our product, India’s first, was accredited solely after it was discovered to be compostable. Ours is the one Bureau of Indian Requirements (BIS) accredited biopolymer movie,” the Hello-Tech Worldwide official mentioned.
The agency, which shifted its headquarters to the Haryana metropolis just a few years in the past from Mumbai, has made additional progress with its product.
“We received the Central Air pollution Management Board licence to start out producing the bio-compostable polymer just a few days in the past and we’ve now begun to pitch Dr Bio to numerous clients,” Sareen advised BusinessLine in a cellphone interview.
Hello-Tech started producing bio-polymers at its plant in Ludhiana, Punjab, in 2018.

Polymer granules

The biopolymer is produced by changing the corn starch right into a granule. “We purchase starch from the mills and go in for polymerisation by way of a mixing course of. This helps us to get polymer granules the best way some petrochemical companies produce plastic granules,” Sareen mentioned.
From these granules, the Gurgaon-based agency, established in 1985, produces bottles, cups, trays, polybags and different such supplies. “Corn starch makes up 60-70 per cent of our product. We additionally use biomass to fabricate our merchandise,” he mentioned.
The biopolymer product getting the obligatory clearances from the authorities is important since India alone produces 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste yearly. At the very least 40 per cent of this stays uncollected. The issue with these waste is a few 43 per cent is used for packaging and most are for single-use.
At the very least 60 per cent of this leads to landfills or in open environments. An actual downside with plastics is that out of each 100 kg, at the very least 40 kg will not be tapped for reuse.

Stronger than plastics

Although manufacturing prices of biopolymer are greater, it may be offset by producing supplies which have decrease micron ranges than conventional plastic merchandise. “Biopolymers are 2.5 instances costlier than plastic merchandise however the place it could rating is that you simply can’t produce a plastic bag lower than 50 microns. Alternatively, we will produce a biopolymer bag of 20 microns,” he mentioned.
Although the micron stage is decrease, these biopolymers are stronger than the plastic baggage. “A 50 micron typical polybag manufactured from plastic can usually maintain merchandise as much as two kg. Our biopolymer baggage can maintain merchandise as much as 5 kg,” Sareen mentioned.
Hello-Tech Worldwide’s hope for a superb response to its product additionally stems from the brand new legislation that the Centre is planning to provide you with towards elevating the micron stage to 120. “This can make our product extra aggressive towards the plastic merchandise,” he mentioned.
The corporate has commercially launched Dr Bio and a few clients have accepted it. “We’re additionally exporting the biopolymers to Europe, the US, South America and South Africa. Now we have began pitching our product to e-commerce companies too and thus far, we’ve received good traction,” he mentioned.
Hello-Tech, which is a privately held agency, is now trying to produce comparable biopolymers from potato and tapioca, that are starch supplies.

Source: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/hi-tech-international-begins-making-biopolymer-from-corn-starch/article35423562.ece

July 12^th 2021

Tate & Lyle spins off industrial sweeteners, starches division to focus on specialty food and beverage solutions.

Tate & Lyle has struck a $1.3bn deal to sell a controlling stake in its ‘Primary Products’ industrial sweeteners and starches business in the Americas to private equity firm KPS Capital Partners, as it focuses on specialty sweeteners, fibers, texturants and other high-value food & beverage ingredients.

The Primary Products business will be moved into a newly formed company called NewCo in which Tate & Lyle will retain a 50% stake.

NewCo comprises three corn wet mills in the US, acidulant plants in the US and Brazil; a 50% stake in two joint ventures – Almex in Guadalajara, Mexico and Bio-PDO, in Loudon, Tennessee; and a grain elevator network and bulk transfer stations in North America.

Tate & Lyle will in turn focus on specialty ingredients for sweetening, mouthfeel, and fortification, such as allulose, sucralose, locust bean gum, stevia, specialty starches, fiber, tapioca and products from selected corn wet mills in Indiana, the Netherlands, and Slovakia.

Primary Products’ European operations, which accounted for around 5% of Primary Products’ revenue in the year ended 31 March 2021, will remain with Tate & Lyle, which said the deal would reduce its exposure to commodities markets in North America.

Upon completion of the deal – expected in the first quarter next year – Tate & Lyle plans to return about £500m to shareholders in a special dividend and retain remaining proceeds for investment, to strengthen its balance sheet, and for M&A, said Tate & Lyle, which sold its sugar business in 2010.

CEO Nick Hampton stated: “Today’s announcement represents the next phase in the evolution of Tate & Lyle. Our one strong company will become two stronger businesses, both in a position to pursue new and exciting growth opportunities in their respective markets.”

Speaking on a call with analysts this morning, Hampton said sweetening, mouthfeel, and fortification were areas of “significant growth” for Tate & Lyle, adding: “Over the last three years, in sweetening, revenue from products supporting sugar reduction, excluding sucralose, increased by a compound annual growth rate of over 20%. Over the same period, in mouthfeel, our range of clean label texturants delivered revenue growth with a CAGR of over 30%; and in fortification revenue for our soluble fibers grew by more than 15%.”

Source: https://www.tateandlyle.com/sites/default/files/2021-07/12-july-2021-tate-lyle-press-release-final.pdf

July 07^th 2021

Hydroxyethyl starch products shouldn’t be used for low blood volume unless no other options exist.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is requiring new safety warnings for hydroxyethyl starch (HES) products in light of reports of death, kidney injury and excessive bleeding associated with these products.

HES treatments are used to stabilize patients experiencing severe blood loss. The announcement follows up on an FDA safety review of these products from randomized clinical trials, meta-analyses, and observational studies. Through this review, the agency concluded that “changes to the Boxed Warning are warranted to highlight the risk of mortality, kidney injury, and excess bleeding, as well as to include a statement that HES products should not be used unless adequate alternative treatment is unavailable.”

There are currently three FDA-approved HES innovator products on the market: HESPAN, 6% hetastarch in 0.9% sodium chloride injection; made by B. Braun Medical, HEXTEND, 6% hetastarch in lactated electrolyte injection made by BioTime, and Voluven, 6% hydroxyethyl starch 130/0.4 in 0.9% sodium chloride injection, made by Fresenius Kabi. There is also one approved generic version of HESPAN that is distributed in the US (6% hetastarch in 0.9% sodium chloride injection) made by Hospira.

In reaching the decision to make the labeling changes, FDA relied on a meta-analysis as well as retrospective and observational studies that “collectively show increased risk of mortality” and acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing surgery who receive HES. The meta-analysis looked at 15 randomized controlled trials, finding a safety signal for increased risk of AKI and renal replacement therapy (RRT) in 4,409 surgical patients treated with HES products. The meta-analysis review was published in the August 2014 issue of Netherlands Journal of Critical Care.

Other retrospective and observational studies in a variety of surgical populations also found increased risk of AKI, RRT and coagulopathy, noted FDA.

For blunt trauma patients, receipt of HES products was associated with not only AKI, but also increased risk of mortality in two retrospective studies.

Excess bleeding when surgical patients received HES products was also seen in one small randomized controlled trial and a larger retrospective study.

This is not the first time that regulators have sounded alarm bells for these products: in 2013, the FDA and the European Medicines Agency issued warnings for these treatments, saying they had several worrisome side effects (RELATED: FDA adds serious new warnings to hydroxyethyl starch products, but falls short of EMA’s restrictions, Regulatory Focus 26 June 2013)

Source: https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/safety-availability-biologics/labeling-changes-mortality-kidney-injury-and-excess-bleeding-hydroxyethyl-starch-products

July 07^th 2021

Samyang Corp. has developed biodegradable plastic using corn starch.

A Bio-material That Can Be Easily Processed into Films.

Samyang Corp. announced on July 6 that it has developed biodegradable plastic using corn starch for the first time in the world. The biodegradable plastic utilizes a bio-material called “isosorbide*,” which is created by chemically processing starch from plants such as corn. The material is stronger and tougher than petroleum-based materials, so it can be easily processed in the form of film. For this reason, it is used to produce disposable bags, agricultural films and fishing nets among others.

Samyang Corp. also developed a compound that can be processed into films. Processing biodegradable plastic into a film form requires a compounding process. The company has developed technology related to this compounding process.

Samyang Innochem, an affiliate of Samyang Corp. is currently building an isosorbide plant with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons for completion in the second half of 2021.

Source: https://www.samyang.com/eng/HD03/Details/1789

* Isosorbide is a bicyclic chemical compound from the group of diols and the oxygen-containing heterocycles, containing two fused furan rings. The starting material for isosorbide is D-sorbitol, which is obtained by catalytic hydrogenation of D-glucose, which is in turn produced by hydrolysis of starch. Isosorbide is discussed as a plant-based platform chemical from which biodegradable derivatives of various functionality can be obtained. Isosorbide is currently of great scientific and technical interest as a monomer building block for biopolymeric polycarbonates, polyesters, polyurethanes and epoxides.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isosorbide