Team:SZU-China/Implementation
Proposed Implementation
China is the world's largest textile production and export country, the textile industry is the traditional pillar industry, in 2015 China's textile printing and dyeing auxiliaries exported 34000t.
The environmental protection fabric dyed by natural dyes is very popular in the market at home and abroad. Tea pigments, chlorophyll, turmeric and so on are mostly used in cellulose dyeing, gardenia, mulberry, sorghum red and so on are mostly used in protein fiber dyeing, alizarin, lac, purple grass and so on are mostly used in synthetic fiber dyeing. many natural pigments are also used in the development of new textiles, such as textiles with functions such as deodorization, insect repellent, antibacterial and flame retardant, anti-ultraviolet, etc. because of their special composition and structural structure.
As for indigo, the global reduced indigo products mainly come from China, Germany, India and other countries. Among them, China's reduced indigo industry has been in a leading position in the world in terms of production capacity and output after years of development, becoming the world's largest production and consumption of the reduced indigo country. The global demand for reduced indigo is mainly in the three major regions of Asia, America and Europe, and other regions account for a relatively small proportion.
To provide a sustainable, industry-based solution, we need to understand the needs of our target users. Therefore, we planned to conduct dozens of stakeholder interviews (HP), covering as much breadth as possible. Leaving no stone left unturned, we got the insider's perspective on the problems afflicting the jeans industry.
We target these jeans factories who want to change the current status of industrial pollution but are blocked by the expensive green solutions.
Our system includes two parts. In the first part, we produced thermostable beta-glucosidase via recombinant E.coli to synthesize Gardenia Blue, a stable, environmental friendly pigment with high dyeing efficiency. After dyeing, we used recombinant cellulase (endo-glucanase) for fraying in replacement of the stone-washing process.
We try to produce our target enzyme efficiently and cheaply through industrial fermentation. We learned from Dr. Huang how to put our bacterial liquid into large-scale fermentation production. And then, we used a large cell cracker to break up the cells to get the enzyme solution.
Figure 1. Fermentation tank
Figure 2. Cell cracker
We also notice that our local government is making efforts to promote the development of cleaner industries. As our project meets the needs of the government，once our project is implemented, we will apply for government support.
Besides, we designed a machine to use our product. Before use, the user needs to add the enzyme solution along with Glycine and Geniposide to the dyeing pool and the abrasion pool respectively. We will produce and sell purified enzyme solution and all these above reagents can be purchased and used multiple times.
Then, the machine will automatically run to produce pigment. After 150 minutes, the user can load the trousers on the trousers clamp, and the machine will automatically complete the dyeing and other steps. When it's all done, you can go out with your new jeans dressed!
Figure 3.Hardware Design Overview
With the improvement of people's living standard, synthetic dyes have gradually attracted people's attention to human health and environmental harm. The characteristics of natural dyes, such as safety, no harm and environmental friendliness, are deeply loved by people.
However, at present, natural dyes are used for dyeing coloured textiles only 1% of the total amount, which is because natural dyes still have some limitations, such as low extraction rate, low colour fastness, no guarantee of safety, difficult supply of raw materials, and no mass production.
To achieve mass standardized production, using biotechnology to cultivate Gardenia Blue dye sources；To conduct in-depth studies on the structure, physiology and pharmacological health care of natural pigments；To improve the stability of Gardenia Blue pigments by combining different pigments, ion replacement and adding stabilizers.
The indigo market is almost saturated. Although our project is a sustainable development plan, it is still difficult to enter the current indigo and jeans industry.
As a biosynthetic dye, it is almost harmless to human, animal, soil and water, and does not cause harm to other organisms while reducing pollution and water consumption.
The organism we used this year: E.coli BL21, as the Risk 1 Group with low potential risk, is wildly used in the fermentation industry.
In spite of this, we plan to add a suicide system to the engineered bacteria carrying the above our enzyme genes. Based on the iGEM19_SZU-China's suicide part BBa_K2912017, and look for a glycine controller to replace its Tryptophan attenuator (from BBa_K2912014), and the rest remain unchanged.(Click here to see more）
[1] Wang Wenxian, Cha Daoyuan, Zhang Xiaofeng. Hazard analysis of dyestuff chemicals[J]. Chemical Management, 2017 (28): 55.
[2] Lu Shengye, Guan Zhiwen. The potential impact of chemical pollution of clothing fabrics on human health[J]. Journal of Environment and Health, 2002,019(005):355-357.
