Formate-based acetogenic bioproduction of fuels and chemical

The rising level of CO2 in the atmosphere require a fundamental shift in the way our economy produces every day needed goods such as chemicals and fuels. Currently, the majority of these products is derived from crude oil through refining and chemical synthesis. However, this production can be seen as living from geological sunshine, as resources that have accumulated over millennia below ground are used in a non-sustainable way. To address the global climate and energy crisis, it is necessary to transform the economy to a system that relies on todays sunshine and other sustainable ways of generating energy such as hydro, wind or biomass. Large scale exploitation of these alternative sources of energy will allow for decarbonization of energy production. Nevertheless, many every-day needed products are carbon-based as is life in general. As such, combining the use of renewable, carbon-neutrally generated energy on the one hand, and CO2 as abundantly available carbon source on Earth, holds great promise. Using chemical catalysis, CO2 and electricity or hydrogen can be efficiently converted into formate, carbon monoxide, or methanol. These compounds represent ideal substrates for bacteria and other microorganisms for growth and production of valuable products. One group of bacteria that can utilize these compounds efficiently are acetogens. Their main characteristic is the ability to convert small one-carbon compounds such as into formate, carbon monoxide, or methanol into acetate and energy for their growth. To achieve this, acetogens use the arguably oldest metabolic pathway for utilization of one carbon compounds on Earth, the Wood- Ljungdahl pathway. The pathway enables acetogens to utilize energy provided in compounds such as formate with very high energetic efficiency. This means that ~90% of the energy that is stored in formate is transformed into a product of choice. This feature makes acetogens prime candidates for the establishment of bioprocesses that generate valuable chemicals from CO2 and renewable energy. These chemicals can be used to make every-day products such as bioplastics. The project FORBIX aims to unlock the full potential of acetogens by developing these organisms into a platform system for the synthesis of many different products. To achieve this goal, a broad approach including microbiology, genetic engineering, fermentation, analysis of microorganisms with a toolbox of bioanalytical methods and computer-generated models will be used. Ultimately, it is anticipated that the results of FORBIX can be used to establish industrial bioproduction systems using formate to make valuable products from CO2 and renewable energy. This will allow to achieve a true carbon- negative system where carbon (CO2) is continually recycled sequestered.