Inhibitory Effect of Furanic and Phenolic Compounds on Exoelectrogenesis in a Microbial Electrolysis Cell Bioanode.

The objective of this study was to systematically investigate the inhibitory effect of furfural (FF), 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), syringic acid (SA), vanillic acid (VA), and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA), which are problematic lignocellulose-derived byproducts, on exoelectrogenesis in the bioanode of a microbial electrolysis cell. The five compound mixture at an initial total concentration range from 0.8 to 8.0 g/L resulted in an up to 91% current decrease as a result of exoelectrogenesis inhibition; fermentative, nonexoelectrogenic biotransformation pathways of the five compounds were not affected. Furthermore, the parent compounds at a high concentration, as opposed to their biotransformation products, were responsible for the observed inhibition. All five parent compounds contributed to the observed inhibition of the mixture. The IC50 (i.e., concentration resulting in 50% current decrease) of individually tested parent compounds was 2.7 g/L for FF, 3.0 g/L for HMF, 1.9 g/L for SA, 2.1 g/L for VA and 2.0 g/L for HBA. However, the parent compounds, when tested below their respective noninhibitory concentration, jointly resulted in significant inhibition as a mixture. Catechol and phenol, which were persistent biotransformation products, inhibited exoelectrogenesis only at high concentrations, but to a lesser extent than the parent compounds. Exoelectrogenesis recovery from inhibition by all compounds was observed at different rates, with the exception of catechol, which resulted in irreversible inhibition.

Biotransformation of Furanic and Phenolic Compounds with Hydrogen Gas Production in a Microbial Electrolysis Cell.

Furanic and phenolic compounds are problematic byproducts resulting from the breakdown of lignocellulosic biomass during biofuel production. The capacity of a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) to produce hydrogen gas (H2) using a mixture of two furanic (furfural, FF; 5-hydroxymethyl furfural, HMF) and three phenolic (syringic acid, SA; vanillic acid, VA; and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, HBA) compounds as the substrate in the bioanode was assessed. The rate and extent of biotransformation of the five compounds and efficiency of H2 production, as well as the structure of the anode microbial community, were investigated. The five compounds were completely transformed within 7-day batch runs and their biotransformation rate increased with increasing initial concentration. At an initial concentration of 1200 mg/L (8.7 mM) of the mixture of the five compounds, their biotransformation rate ranged from 0.85 to 2.34 mM/d. The anode Coulombic efficiency was 44-69%, which is comparable to that of wastewater-fed MECs. The H2 yield varied from 0.26 to 0.42 g H2-COD/g COD removed in the anode, and the bioanode volume-normalized H2 production rate was 0.07-0.1 L/L-d. The biotransformation of the five compounds took place via fermentation followed by exoelectrogenesis. The major identified fermentation products that did not transform further were catechol and phenol. Acetate was the direct substrate for exoelectrogenesis. Current and H2 production were inhibited at an initial substrate concentration of 1200 mg/L, resulting in acetate accumulation at a much higher level than that measured in other batch runs conducted with a lower initial concentration of the five compounds. The anode microbial community consisted of exoelectrogens, putative degraders of the five compounds, and syntrophic partners of exoelectrogens. The MEC H2 production demonstrated in this study is an alternative to the currently used process of reforming natural gas to supply H2 needed to upgrade bio-oils to stable hydrocarbon fuels.

Conversion of residual organics in corn stover-derived biorefinery stream to bioenergy via a microbial fuel cell.

A biorefinery process typically uses about 4-10 times more water than the amount of biofuel generated. The wastewater produced in a biorefinery process contains residual sugars, 5-furfural, phenolics, and other pretreatment and fermentation byproducts. Treatment of the wastewater can reduce the need for fresh water and potentially add to the environmental benefits of the process. Use of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for conversion of the complete range of phenolic compounds and furan aldehyde derivatives present in a postfermentation biorefinery stream is reported here. The consortium was capable of removing the molecules simultaneously with sugars, which were present at 2 orders of magnitude higher concentrations. Organic loading in a fed-batch MFC affected Coulombic efficiency, which decreased from 40% at 0.66 g/L loading to 1.8% at 66.4 g/L loading. Power density increased with loading reaching 1180 mW/m(2) at 5.3 g/L (8% dilution), but decreased thereafter. Excessive loading leads to poor electrogenic performance; therefore, operation of an MFC at an intermediate loading using dilution and recirculation of the process stream can enable effective treatment with bioenergy recovery.

Performance and community structure dynamics of microbial electrolysis cells operated on multiple complex feedstocks.

BACKGROUND: Microbial electrolysis is a promising technology for converting aqueous wastes into hydrogen. However, substrate adaptability is an important feature, seldom documented in microbial electrolysis cells (MECs). In addition, the correlation between substrate composition and community structure has not been well established. This study used an MEC capable of producing over 10 L/L-day of hydrogen from a switchgrass-derived bio-oil aqueous phase and investigated four additional substrates, tested in sequence on a mature biofilm. The additional substrates included a red oak-derived bio-oil aqueous phase, a corn stover fermentation product, a mixture of phenol and acetate, and acetate alone. RESULTS: The MECs fed with the corn stover fermentation product resulted in the highest performance among the complex feedstocks, producing an average current density of 7.3 ± 0.51 A/m2, although the acetate fed MECs outperformed complex substrates, producing 12.3 ± 0.01 A/m2. 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that community structure and community diversity were not predictive of performance, and replicate community structures diverged despite identical inoculum and enrichment procedure. The trends in each replicate, however, were indicative of the influence of the substrates. Geobacter was the most dominant genus across most of the samples tested, but its abundance did not correlate strongly to current density. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) showed that acetic acid accumulated during open circuit conditions when MECs were fed with complex feedstocks and was quickly degraded once closed circuit conditions were applied. The largest net acetic acid removal rate occurred when MECs were fed with red oak bio-oil aqueous phase, consuming 2.93 ± 0.00 g/L-day. Principal component analysis found that MEC performance metrics such as current density, hydrogen productivity, and chemical oxygen demand removal were closely correlated. Net acetic acid removal was also found to correlate with performance. However, no bacterial genus appeared to correlated to these performance metrics strongly, and the analysis suggested that less than 70% of the variance was accounted for by the two components. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the robustness of microbial communities to adapt to a range of feedstocks and conditions without relying on specific species, delivering high hydrogen productivities despite differences in community structure. The results indicate that functional adaptation may play a larger role in performance than community composition. Further investigation of the roles each microbe plays in these communities will help MECs to become integral in the 21st-century bioeconomy to produce zero-emission fuels.

Microbial electrolysis using aqueous fractions derived from Tail-Gas Recycle Pyrolysis of willow and guayule.

This study investigated microbial electrolysis of two aqueous phase waste products derived from guayule and willow generated from Tail Gas Recycle Pyrolysis (TGRP). The highest average current density achieved was 5.0 ±â€¯0.7 A/m2 and 1.8 ±â€¯0.2 A/m2 for willow and guayule respectively. Average hydrogen productivity was 5.0 ±â€¯1.0 L/L-day from willow and 1.5 ±â€¯0.2 L/L-day for guayule. Willow also generated higher coulombic efficiency, anode conversion efficiency, and hydrogen recovery than guayule at most organic loading conditions. Compounds investigated exceeded 80% degradation, which included organic acids, sugar derivatives, and phenolics. Mass spectrometric analysis demonstrated the accumulation of a long chain amine not present in either substrate before treatment, and the persistence of several peptide residues resulting from the TGRP process. New biorefineries may one day capitalize on this otherwise discarded byproduct of TGRP, further improving the potential applications and value of microbial electrolysis towards energy production.

Processes and electron flow in a microbial electrolysis cell bioanode fed with furanic and phenolic compounds.

Furanic and phenolic compounds are problematic compounds resulting from the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuel production. Microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) is a promising technology to convert furanic and phenolic compounds to renewable H2. The objective of the research presented here was to elucidate the processes and electron equivalents flow during the conversion of two furanic (furfural, FF; 5-hydroxymethyl furfural, HMF) and three phenolic (syringic acid, SA; vanillic acid, VA; 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, HBA) compounds in the MEC bioanode. Cyclic voltammograms of the bioanode demonstrated that purely electrochemical reactions in the biofilm attached to the electrode were negligible. Instead, microbial reactions related to the biotransformation of the five parent compounds (i.e., fermentation followed by exoelectrogenesis) were the primary processes resulting in the electron equivalents flow in the MEC bioanode. A mass-based framework of substrate utilization and electron flow was developed to quantify the distribution of the electron equivalents among the bioanode processes, including biomass growth for each of the five parent compounds. Using input parameters of anode efficiency and biomass observed yield coefficients, it was estimated that more than 50% of the SA, FF, and HMF electron equivalents were converted to current. In contrast, only 12 and 9% of VA and HBA electron equivalents, respectively, resulted in current production, while 76 and 79% remained as fermentation end products not further utilized in exoelectrogenesis. For all five compounds, it was estimated that 10% of the initially added electron equivalents were used for fermentative biomass synthesis, while 2 to 13% were used for exoelectrogenic biomass synthesis. The proposed mass-based framework provides a foundation for the simulation of bioanode processes to guide the optimization of MECs converting biomass-derived waste streams to renewable H2.

Unravelling biocomplexity of electroactive biofilms for producing hydrogen from biomass.

Leveraging nature's biocomplexity for solving human problems requires better understanding of the syntrophic relationships in engineered microbiomes developed in bioreactor systems. Understanding the interactions between microbial players within the community will be key to enhancing conversion and production rates from biomass streams. Here we investigate a bioelectrochemical system employing an enriched microbial consortium for conversion of a switchgrass-derived bio-oil aqueous phase (BOAP) into hydrogen via microbial electrolysis (MEC). MECs offer the potential to produce hydrogen in an integrated fashion in biorefinery platforms and as a means of energy storage through decentralized production to supply hydrogen to fuelling stations, as the world strives to move towards cleaner fuels and electricity-mediated transportation. A unique approach combining differential substrate and redox conditions revealed efficient but rate-limiting fermentation of the compounds within BOAP by the anode microbial community through a division of labour strategy combined with multiple levels of syntrophy. Despite the fermentation limitation, the adapted abilities of the microbial community resulted in a high hydrogen productivity of 9.35 L per L-day. Using pure acetic acid as the substrate instead of the biomass-derived stream resulted in a three-fold improvement in productivity. This high rate of exoelectrogenesis signifies the potential commercial feasibility of MEC technology for integration in biorefineries.

Mesophilic digestion kinetics of manure slurry.

Anaerobic digestion kinetics study of cow manure was performed at 35 degrees C in bench-scale gas-lift digesters (3.78 l working volume) at eight different volatile solids (VS) loading rates in the range of 1.11-5.87 g l-1 day-1. The digesters produced methane at the rates of 0.44-1.18 l l-1 day-1, and the methane content of the biogas was found to increase with longer hydraulic retention time (HRT). Based on the experimental observations, the ultimate methane yield and the specific methane productivity were estimated to be 0.42 l CH4 (g VS loaded)-1 and 0.45 l CH4 (g VS consumed)-1, respectively. Total and dissolved chemical oxygen demand (COD) consumptions were calculated to be 59-17% and 78-43% at 24.4-4.6 days HRTs, respectively. Maximum concentration of volatile fatty acids in the effluent was observed as 0.7 g l-1 at 4.6 days HRT, while it was below detection limit at HRTs longer than 11 days. The observed methane production rate did not compare well with the predictions of Chen and Hashimoto's [1] and Hill's [2] models using their recommended kinetic parameters. However, under the studied experimental conditions, the predictions of Chen and Hashimoto's [1] model compared better to the observed data than that of Hill's [2] model. The nonlinear regression analysis of the experimental data was performed using a derived methane production rate model, for a completely mixed anaerobic digester, involving Contois kinetics [3] with endogenous decay. The best fit values for the maximum specific growth rate (micro m) and dimensionless kinetic parameter (K) were estimated as 0.43 day-1 and 0.89, respectively. The experimental data were found to be within 95% confidence interval of the prediction of the derived methane production rate model with the sum of residual squared error as 0.02.

The extent of fermentative transformation of phenolic compounds in the bioanode controls exoelectrogenic activity in a microbial electrolysis cell.

Phenolic compounds in hydrolysate/pyrolysate and wastewater streams produced during the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuel production present a significant challenge in downstream processes. Bioelectrochemical systems are increasingly recognized as an alternative technology to handle biomass-derived streams and to promote water reuse in biofuel production. Thus, a thorough understanding of the fate of phenolic compounds in bioanodes is urgently needed. The present study investigated the biotransformation of three structurally similar phenolic compounds (syringic acid, SA; vanillic acid, VA; 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, HBA), and their individual contribution to exoelectrogenesis in a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) bioanode. Fermentation of SA resulted in the highest exoelectrogenic activity among the three compounds tested, with 50% of the electron equivalents converted to current, compared to 12 and 9% for VA and HBA, respectively. The biotransformation of SA, VA and HBA was initiated by demethylation and decarboxylation reactions common to all three compounds, resulting in their corresponding hydroxylated analogs. SA was transformed to pyrogallol (1,2,3-trihydroxybenzene), whose aromatic ring was then cleaved via a phloroglucinol pathway, resulting in acetate production, which was then used in exoelectrogenesis. In contrast, more than 80% of VA and HBA was converted to catechol (1,2-dihydroxybenzene) and phenol (hydroxybenzene) as their respective dead-end products. The persistence of catechol and phenol is explained by the fact that the phloroglucinol pathway does not apply to di- or mono-hydroxylated benzenes. Previously reported, alternative ring-cleaving pathways were either absent in the bioanode microbial community or unfavorable due to high energy-demand reactions. With the exception of acetate oxidation, all biotransformation steps in the bioanode occurred via fermentation, independently of exoelectrogenesis. Therefore, the observed exoelectrogenic activity in batch runs conducted with SA, VA and HBA was controlled by the extent of fermentative transformation of the three phenolic compounds in the bioanode, which is related to the number and position of the methoxy and hydroxyl substituents.

Biomodification of coal to remove mercury.

A biological process for removal of mercury from coal is under investigation. Iron and sulfur oxidizing bacteria have previously been used for desulfurization of coal and for mineral mining. We have shown that removal of mercury from coal is also possible via the same principles. Two pure cultures, Leptospirillum ferrooxidans and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and four environmental consortium samples obtained from an acid mine drainage site were studied for mercury removal from coal. Four different coal samples were included in the study and the preliminary results have shown that up to 20% of the mercury can be removed in batch cultures compared to control. Additional parameters such as media composition and inoculum size were also studied. This is the first report demonstrating successful leaching of mercury from coal using biological treatment.

Methane production in a 100-L upflow bioreactor by anaerobic digestion of farm waste.

Manure waste from dairy farms has been used for methane production for decades, however, problems such as digester failure are routine. The problem has been investigated in small scale (1-2 L) digesters in the laboratory; however, very little scale-up to intermediate scales are available. We report production of methane in a 100-L digester and the results of an investigation into the effect of partial mixing induced by gas upflow/recirculation in the digester. The digester was operated for a period of about 70 d (with 16-d hydraulic retention time) with and without the mixing induced by gas recirculation through an internal draft tube. The results show a clear effect of mixing on digester operation. Without any mixing, the digester performance deteriorated within 30-50 d, whereas with mixing continuous production of methane was observed. This study demonstrates the importance of mixing and its critical role in design of large scale anaerobic digesters.

Substrate desolvation as a governing factor in enzymatic transformations of PAHs in aqueous-acetonitrile mixtures.

Conversion of hydrophobic substrates such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was studied in aqueous-organic media using transformation of pyrene by cytochrome c. The experiments were conducted in pure solvents and aqueous-acetonitrile mixtures. The reaction rates dropped gradually as the solvent concentration was increased and were negligible in pure solvents. Thermodynamic calculations show that substrate desolvation was the governing factor in this reaction. The decrease in free energy of activation upon increasing the solvent concentration was found to be proportional to the substrate transfer free energy. This suggests that in order to make such reactions feasible in organic media, it will be necessary to improve the binding between the proteins and the substrates.

Comparison of the emulsion characteristics of Rhodococcus erythropolis and Escherichia coli SOXC-5 cells expressing biodesulfurization genes.

Biodesulfurization of fuel oils is a two-phase (oil/water) process which may offer an interesting alternative to conventional hydrodesulfurization due to the mild operating conditions and reaction specificity afforded by the biocatalyst. For biodesulfurization to realize commercial success, a variety of process considerations must be addressed including reaction rate, emulsion formation and breakage, biocatalyst recovery, and both gas and liquid mass transport. This study evaluates emulsion formation and breakage using two biocatalysts with differing hydrophobic characteristics. A Gram-positive (Rhodococcus erythropolis) biocatalyst, expressing the complete 4S desulfurization pathway, and a Gram-negative biocatalyst (Escherichia coli), expressing only the gene for conversion of dibenzothiophene (DBT) to DBT sulfone, are compared relative to their ability to convert DBT and the ease of phase separation as well as biocatalyst recovery following desulfurization.

Enhancement in current density and energy conversion efficiency of 3-dimensional MFC anodes using pre-enriched consortium and continuous supply of electron donors.

Using a pre-enriched microbial consortium as the inoculum and continuous supply of carbon source, improvement in performance of a three-dimensional, flow-through MFC anode utilizing ferricyanide cathode was investigated. The power density increased from 170 W/m(3) (1800 mW/m(2)) to 580 W/m(3) (6130 mW/m(2)), when the carbon loading increased from 2.5 g/l-day to 50 g/l-day. The coulombic efficiency (CE) decreased from 90% to 23% with increasing carbon loading. The CEs are among the highest reported for glucose and lactate as the substrate with the maximum current density reaching 15.1A/m(2). This suggests establishment of a very high performance exoelectrogenic microbial consortium at the anode. A maximum energy conversion efficiency of 54% was observed at a loading of 2.5 g/l-day. Biological characterization of the consortium showed presence of Burkholderiales and Rhodocyclales as the dominant members. Imaging of the biofilms revealed thinner biofilms compared to the inoculum MFC, but a 1.9-fold higher power density.

Understanding long-term changes in microbial fuel cell performance using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

Changes in the anode, cathode, and solution/membrane impedances during enrichment of an anode microbial consortium were measured using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The consortium was enriched in a compact, flow-through porous electrode chamber coupled to an air-cathode. The anode impedance initially decreased from 296.1 to 36.3 Omega in the first 43 days indicating exoelectrogenic biofilm formation. The external load on the MFC was decreased in a stepwise manner to allow further enrichment. MFC operation at a final load of 50 Omega decreased the anode impedance to 1.4 Omega, with a corresponding cathode and membrane/solution impedance of 12.1 and 3.0 Omega, respectively. An analysis of the capacitive element suggested that most of the three-dimensional anode surface was participating in the bioelectrochemical reaction. The power density of the air-cathode MFC stabilized after 3 months of operation and stayed at 422 +/- 42 mW/m(2) (33 W/m(3)) for the next 3 months. The normalized anode impedance for the MFC was 0.017 kOmega cm(2), a 28-fold reduction over that reported previously. This study demonstrates a unique ability of biological systems to reduce the electron transfer resistance in MFCs, and their potential for stable energy production over extended periods of time.

Controlling accumulation of fermentation inhibitors in biorefinery recycle water using microbial fuel cells.

BACKGROUND: Microbial fuel cells (MFC) and microbial electrolysis cells are electrical devices that treat water using microorganisms and convert soluble organic matter into electricity and hydrogen, respectively. Emerging cellulosic biorefineries are expected to use large amounts of water during production of ethanol. Pretreatment of cellulosic biomass results in production of fermentation inhibitors which accumulate in process water and make the water recycle process difficult. Use of MFCs to remove the inhibitory sugar and lignin degradation products from recycle water is investigated in this study. RESULTS: Use of an MFC to reduce the levels of furfural, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, vanillic acid, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde and 4-hydroxyacetophenone while simultaneously producing electricity is demonstrated here. An integrated MFC design approach was used which resulted in high power densities for the MFC, reaching up to 3700 mW/m2 (356 W/m3 net anode volume) and a coulombic efficiency of 69%. The exoelectrogenic microbial consortium enriched in the anode was characterized using a 16S rRNA clone library method. A unique exoelectrogenic microbial consortium dominated by delta-Proteobacteria (50%), along with beta-Proteobacteria (28%), alpha-Proteobacteria (14%), gamma-Proteobacteria (6%) and others was identified. The consortium demonstrated broad substrate specificity, ability to handle high inhibitor concentrations (5 to 20 mM) with near complete removal, while maintaining long-term stability with respect to power production. CONCLUSION: Use of MFCs for removing fermentation inhibitors has implications for: 1) enabling higher ethanol yields at high biomass loading in cellulosic ethanol biorefineries, 2) improved water recycle and 3) electricity production up to 25% of total biorefinery power needs.

Investigating microbial fuel cell bioanode performance under different cathode conditions.

A compact, three-in-one, flow-through, porous, electrode design with minimal electrode spacing and minimal dead volume was implemented to develop a microbial fuel cell (MFC) with improved anode performance. A biofilm-dominated anode consortium enriched under a multimode, continuous-flow regime was used. The increase in the power density of the MFC was investigated by changing the cathode (type, as well as catholyte strength) to determine whether anode was limiting. The power density obtained with an air-breathing cathode was 56 W/m(3) of net anode volume (590 mW/m(2)) and 203 W/m(3) (2160 mW/m(2)) with a 50-mM ferricyanide-based cathode. Increasing the ferricyanide concentration and ionic strength further increased the power density, reaching 304 W/m(3) (3220 mW/m(2), with 200 mM ferricyanide and 200 mM buffer concentration). The increasing trend in the power density indicated that the anode was not limiting and that higher power densities could be obtained using cathodes capable of higher rates of oxidation. The internal solution resistance for the MFC was 5-6 Omega, which supported the improved performance of the anode design. A new parameter defined as the ratio of projected surface area to total anode volume is suggested as a design parameter to relate volumetric and area-based power densities and to enable comparison of various MFC configurations.

Improving activity of salt-lyophilized enzymes in organic media.

Lyophilization with salts has been identified as an important method of activating enzymes in organic media. Using salt-activated enzymes to transform molecules tethered to solid surfaces in organic phase requires solubilization of enzymes in the solvents. Methods of improving performance of salt-lyophilized enzymes, further, via chemical modification, and use of surfactants and surfactants to create fine emulsions prior to lyophilization are investigated. The reaction system used is transesterification of N-acetyl phenylalanine ethyl ester with methanol or propanol. Initial rate of formation of amino acid esters by subtilisin Carlsberg (SC) was studied and found to increase two to sevenfold by either chemical modification or addition of surfactants in certain solvents, relative to the salt (only)-lyophilized enzyme. The method to prepare highly dispersed enzymes in a salt-surfactant milieu also improved activity by two to threefold. To test the effect of chemical modification on derivatization of drug molecules, acylation of bergenin was investigated using chemically modified SC.

A microbial fuel cell operating at low pH using the acidophile Acidiphilium cryptum.

For the first time, a microbial fuel cell has been developed using an acidophile, Acidiphilium cryptum, as the anode biocatalyst. Electricity production using its natural electron acceptor, iron, as the electron mediating agent at pH values < or =4.0 was demonstrated. Accumulation of Fe(III) at the electrode, however, restricted current output. The combination of nitrilotriacetic acid and Phenosafranin as electron mediators increased the power output to 12.7 mW/m(2) in a two-chamber air-sparged fuel cell. Direct electron transfer from the microorganisms to the anode was also investigated but was not detected under the conditions studied.

Techno-economic analysis of biocatalytic processes for production of alkene epoxides.

A techno-economic analysis of two different bioprocesses was conducted, one for the conversion of propylene to propylene oxide (PO) and other for conversion of styrene to styrene epoxide (SO). The first process was a lipase-mediated chemo-enzymatic reaction, whereas the second one was a one-step enzymatic process using chloroperoxidase. The PO produced through the chemo-enzymatic process is a racemic product, whereas the latter process (based on chloroperoxidase) produces an enantio-pure product. The former process thus falls under the category of high-volume commodity chemical (PO); whereas the latter is a low-volume, high-value product (SO).A simulation of the process was conducted using the bioprocess engineering software SuperPro Designer v6.0 (Intelligen, Inc., Scotch Plains, NJ) to determine the economic feasibility of the process. The purpose of the exercise was to compare biocatalytic processes with existing chemical processes for production of alkene expoxides. The results show that further improvements are needed in improving biocatalyst stability to make these bioprocesses competitive with chemical processes.