Distributed flux balance analysis simulations of serial biomass fermentation by two organisms

Intelligent biorefinery design that addresses both the composition of the
biomass feedstock as well as fermentation microorganisms could benefit
from dedicated tools for computational simulation and computer-assisted
optimization. Here we present the BioLego Vn2.0 framework, based on
Microsoft Azure Cloud, which supports large-scale simulations of biomass
serial fermentation processes by two different organisms. BioLego enables
the simultaneous analysis of multiple fermentation scenarios and the
comparison of fermentation potential of multiple feedstock compositions.
Thanks to the effective use of cloud computing it further allows resource
intensive analysis and exploration of media and organism modifications. We
use BioLego to obtain biological and validation results, including (1)
exploratory search for the optimal utilization of corn biomasses – corn
cobs, corn fiber and corn stover – in fermentation biorefineries; (2)
analysis of the possible effects of changes in the composition of K.
alvarezi biomass on the ethanol production yield in an anaerobic two-step
process (S. cerevisiae followed by E. coli); (3) analysis of the impact,
on the estimated ethanol production yield, of knocking out single organism
reactions either in one or in both organisms in an anaerobic two-step
fermentation process of Ulva sp. into ethanol (S. cerevisiae followed by
E. coli); and (4) comparison of several experimentally measured ethanol
fermentation rates with the predictions of BioLego.