In order to deliver economically feasible biotechnological methods for sustainable (by-) productions, this project brings together various methods from different areas of plant and industrial biotechnology and its outcome is applicable in different sectors. Given the limits in exploiting natural resources and the huge impact on climate change, the current usage of the scarce fossil resources for the production of divergent materials and products e.g. plastic polymers, fuel, dietary supplements and cosmetics calls for alternative solutions. Here, biomaterials derived from plants can substitute petroleum-based materials1. The range of such biomaterials can be expanded by the addition enzymes that convert endogenous plant metabolites into polymers that do not occur naturally in plants2. CGP is such a polymer and its derivation from plants delivers an alternative biotechnology to the current usage of fossil resources. CGP can be used as both, a source of valuable dietary (e.g. N-rich ingredient for the food and feed industry) and a novel biopolymer for the chemical and material industry (e.g. substitution of petroleum in the production of plastic compounds). However, because there is no economically feasible system for large-scale industrial production, its application is still limited.
1 van Beilen JB, Poirier Y. Plants as factories for bioplastics and other novel biomaterials. In: Altman A, Hasegawa PM (Eds). Plant Biotechnology and Agriculture. London, UK; 2012. p. 481-494
2 Snell KD, Singh V, Brumbley SM. Production of novel biopolymers in plants: recent technological advances and future prospects. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2015;32:68-75.