description
- Xylitol is a sweetener found naturally in fresh fruit and has 33% fewer calories than table sugar, inhibits tooth decay, is metabolised independently of insulin in the body, and as such has application in maintaining dietary, dental and diabetic health. While xylitol is present in plants, the quantities are so low that it is not economically feasible to extract it commercially and industrial production relies on chemical synthesis that uses acid, high temperature, pressure and a heavy metal catalyst to produce xylitol. Using proprietary microbes, the start-up company ARCITEKBio Ltd. has developed an environmentally friendly fermentation process to produce xylitol using crop waste such as wheat straw. The objective of this project is to enable ARCITEKBio Ltd. to scale-up the xylitol production process, validate the techno-economics of this industrial biotechnology (IB) against the traditional chemical synthesis method. Once the pure product is produced at scale, it will be shared with collaborative end-users for beta-testing and early stage regulatory assessments. With the market value for xylitol anticipated to reach £1 billion by 2025 and growing at a compound annual growth rate of 6.2%, ARCITEKBio Ltd is looking to secure further funding and partners within the supply chain to ultimately commercialise the IB-mediated production of xylitol in the UK and possibly further afield.