Sustainable production of chemicals and fuels from carbon dioxide (2016-2019)

Microbes are fascinating organisms giving us cheese, beer, and wine. A special group of bacteria is even capable to produce electricity from waste materials, or eat electricity to convert CO2 emissions into chemicals. This process has the potential to dramatically improve the sustainability of future chemical industry and environmental biotechnology. We have already shown that acetate, an important precursor in the chemical industry, can be produced in lab-scale reactors using selected microbial communities. Our goal is now to engineer a process capable of producing a broad range of biochemicals and biofuels from CO2 at high rates and high product concentrations.