CO2-Based Manufacturing System for Recombinant Protein Production

Space biomanufacturing is a potential In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) strategy to provide critical consumables and products while minimizing the launched mass for long-duration, deep space missions. On Earth, the primary biological conversion of CO2 to biomass is through photosynthesis, and sugars from photosynthetic organisms are used as feedstocks for microbial biomanufacturing. The efficiency of non-biological reduction of CO2 to organic molecules, such as acetate or ethanol, has greatly increased in recent years. We are designing a biomanufacturing system to rely on electrochemical CO2 conversion products for carbon substrates to support microbial growth and production of recombinant proteins. The preliminary design includes a gas-permeable membrane bioreactor with dry salts that are rehydrated and mixed with the carbon source to support growth of bacteria or yeast. The system architecture has a partially automated bioprocessing system to concentrate biomass and purify recombinant protein. This system is designed to operate semi-autonomously with minimal crew intervention. The specific use-case scenario is to produce a thermal stable carbonic anhydrase to increase the efficiency of a proposed liquid amine CO2 removal subsystem of an environmental control and life-support system (ECLSS) on Mars.