Biotechnology: Engineered bacteria produce industrial chemicals from waste gases

 
A paper reports that gas that is released in the industrial process and causes pollution, such as carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, can be converted into two useful chemical substances (acetone and isopropanol) by using genetically engineered bacteria. , Published in Nature Biotechnology.This method is a carbon-negative (more absorptive than carbon dioxide generation) method that replaces the current method of producing these chemicals from petroleum and natural gas.

Microbial fermentation, which is used in the food industry to produce products such as yogurt and beer, is expected to be a method of producing various chemical substances from non-fossil fuels.Most research in this area uses microorganisms that ferment sugar, but using sugar as a raw material is costly and results in high total greenhouse gas emissions during the manufacturing process.However, some bacteria have the ability to ferment gas and can convert gases such as carbon dioxide into more complex molecules.This opens the way for the gas released in the industrial process and generated from biomass and municipal waste to be transformed into useful products.

Now, Michael Köpke, Michael Jewett and colleagues have shown how to genetically engineer the bacterium Clostridium autoethanogenum to synthesize chemicals that are not normally produced.The authors also conducted industrial-scale pilot experiments with two chemicals, acetone and isopropanol, which together have a global market size of over $ 2 billion. We have demonstrated that it can be selectively synthesized with extremely high efficiency.The existing process of producing these chemicals from petroleum and natural gas is a factor in exacerbating climate change, but our system fixes more carbon than it emits, so carbon dioxide emissions are high. It will be negative.

The authors state that this sustainable alternative production of acetone and isopropanol could be applied to the production of a variety of other useful chemicals.

doi: 10.1038 / s41587-021-01195-w
[Original English »]
 
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* This article is reprinted from "Nature Japan Featured Highlights".
Reprinted from: "Biotechnology: Genetically engineered bacteria produce industrial chemicals from exhaust gas'
 

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