This figure illustrates the science and engineering topics that will enable innovation and advance fundamental understanding of future photosynthetic biorefineries.
Figure 2. Photosynthetic bio-refineries: enabling innovation through integration of fundamental science and engineering with systems-level analysis..
Cellular & molecular biology, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, biological engineering, and manufacturing engineering are the foundational disciplines for enabling innovation and fundamental understanding of photosynthetic bio-refineries for fuels, chemicals, and bio-products in scalable biomanufacturing platforms.
The pathway from fundamentals to systems will embrace an integrated and multi-scale understanding of the inter-relationships between photosynthesis and energy-rich molecule biosynthesis at the cellular scale, and the transport phenomena underlying carbon dioxide and light delivery within photobioreactor systems at the process scale.