Bacteria upcycle carbon waste into valuable chemicals
Engineered bacteria convert captured carbon dioxide into chemicals for
fuels, fabric and cosmetics

Date:
February 21, 2022
Source:
Northwestern University
Summary:
Researchers engineered a strain of bacteria to break down carbon
dioxide (CO2), converting it into commonly used, expensive
industrial chemicals.

The carbon-negative approach removes CO2 from the atmosphere and
bypasses using fossil fuels to generate these chemicals.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers engineered a strain of bacteria to break down carbon
dioxide (CO2), converting it into commonly used, expensive industrial chemicals. The carbon- negative approach removes CO2 from the atmosphere
and bypasses using fossil fuels to generate these chemicals.


========================================================================== Bacteria are known for breaking down lactose to make yogurt and sugar to
make beer. Now researchers led by Northwestern University and LanzaTech
have harnessed bacteria to break down waste carbon dioxide (CO2) to make valuable industrial chemicals.

In a new pilot study, the researchers selected, engineered and optimized
a bacteria strain and then successfully demonstrated its ability to
convert CO2into acetone and isopropanol (IPA).

Not only does this new gas fermentation process remove greenhouse
gases from the atmosphere, it also avoids using fossil fuels, which
are typically needed to generate acetone and IPA. After performing
life-cycle analysis, the team found the carbon-negative platform could
reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 160% as compared to conventional
processes, if widely adopted.

The study will be published on Monday (Feb. 21) in the journalNature Biotechnology.

"The accelerating climate crisis, combined with rapid population growth,
pose some of the most urgent challenges to humankind, all linked to the unabated release and accumulation of CO2across the entire biosphere,"
said Northwestern's Michael Jewett, co-senior author of the study. "By harnessing our capacity to partner with biology to make what is needed,
where and when it is needed, on a sustainable and renewable basis,
we can begin to take advantage of the available CO2to transform the bioeconomy." Jewett is the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering
and director of the Center for Synthetic Biology. He co-led the study
with Michael Koepke and Ching Leang, both researchers at LanzaTech.



========================================================================== Necessary industrial bulk and platform chemicals, acetone and IPA
are found nearly everywhere, with a combined global market topping
$10 billion. Widely used as a disinfectant and antiseptic, IPA is the
basis for one of the two World Health Organization-recommended sanitizer formulas, which are highly effective in killing the SARS-CoV-2 virus. And acetone is a solvent for many plastics and synthetic fibers, thinning
polyester resin, cleaning tools and nail polish remover.

While these chemicals are incredibly useful, they are generated from
fossil resources, leading to climate-warming CO2 emissions.

To manufacture these chemicals more sustainably, the researchers
developed a new gas fermentation process. They started with Clostridium autoethanogenum, an anaerobic bacterium engineered at LanzaTech. Then,
the researchers used synthetic biology tools to reprogram the bacterium
to ferment CO2 to make acetone and IPA.

"These innovations, led by cell-free strategies that guided both strain engineering and optimization of pathway enzymes, accelerated time to
production by more than a year," Jewett said.

The Northwestern and LanzaTech teams believe the developed strains and fermentation process will translate to industrial scale. The approach
also could potentially be applied to create streamlined processes for generating other valuable chemicals.

"This discovery is a major step forward in avoiding a climate
catastrophe," said Jennifer Holmgren, LanzaTech CEO. "Today, most of our commodity chemicals are derived exclusively from new fossil resources
such as oil, natural gas or coal. Acetone and IPA are two examples with
a combined global market of $10 billion. The acetone and IPA pathways
developed will accelerate the development of other new products by closing
the carbon cycle for their use in multiple industries." Jewett is a
member of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Simpson Querrey
Institute for BioNanotechnology and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive
Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Northwestern_University. Original
written by Amanda Morris. Note: Content may be edited for style and
length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Fungmin Eric Liew, Robert Nogle, Tanus Abdalla, Blake J. Rasor,
Christina
Canter, Rasmus O. Jensen, Lan Wang, Jonathan Strutz, Payal Chirania,
Sashini De Tissera, Alexander P. Mueller, Zhenhua Ruan, Allan
Gao, Loan Tran, Nancy L. Engle, Jason C. Bromley, James Daniell,
Robert Conrado, Timothy J. Tschaplinski, Richard J. Giannone,
Robert L. Hettich, Ashty S.

Karim, Se'an D. Simpson, Steven D. Brown, Ching Leang, Michael
C. Jewett, Michael Ko"pke. Carbon-negative production of acetone and
isopropanol by gas fermentation at industrial pilot scale. Nature
Biotechnology, 2022; DOI: 10.1038/s41587-021-01195-w ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220221115409.htm

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