CO₂ as a Raw Material for the Sustainable Production of High-Value Platform Chemicals
Abstract
An innovative microbial technology enables the direct conversion of CO₂-containing gas streams into high-value platform chemicals in a single-step fermentation process.
Advantages
- CO₂ as a raw material instead of fossil carbon sources
- Single-step bioprocess in a shared bioreactor
- No separate intermediate purification required
- Production of high-value platform chemicals
- Utilisation of industrial CO₂-, CO- and H₂-containing gas streams
- Potential to reduce the use of fossil and sugar-based feedstocks
- Suitable for CCU and industrial gas fermentation
- Production of cadaverine, glutarate and 5-aminovalerate
Fields of application
The technology is suitable for the utilisation of CO₂-containing industrial gas streams and opens up a range of applications in Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) and industrial biotechnology.
Potential CO₂ sources include gas streams from the steel, cement, energy and chemical industries, as well as other industrial off-gases and synthesis gas streams.
The platform chemicals produced can serve as starting materials for a wide range of downstream chemical products. Potential applications include the polymer and plastics industry, for example in the production of polyamides and other polymeric materials.
Further application areas include:
- Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU)
- Industrial gas fermentation
- Bio-based and sustainable chemistry
- Production of platform chemicals
- Polymer and plastics industry
- Production of polyamide precursors
- Specialty chemicals
Background
The chemical industry faces the challenge of replacing fossil feedstocks with sustainable sources of carbon while simultaneously reducing CO₂ emissions. A promising approach is to use CO₂ not as a waste product, but as a raw material for the production of chemicals.
Industrial gas streams contain CO₂ as well as other potentially usable carbon and energy sources such as CO and hydrogen. Biological fixation of these gases can generate organic intermediates that are subsequently converted into higher-value chemical compounds. In this way, existing carbon can be recovered and transferred into new value chains.
Problem
The production of high-value organic chemicals from CO₂ poses significant challenges for biotechnological processes. In particular, the efficient conversion of gaseous carbon into more complex target molecules requires the combination of different metabolic capabilities.
Existing biotechnological processes for the production of platform chemicals are often based on sugar- or glycerol-based feedstocks. This makes production dependent on the availability of these raw materials and continues to require biogenic or fossil sources of carbon.
An efficient alternative is therefore an integrated process that directly uses CO₂-containing gas streams as a carbon source and combines CO₂ fixation with the synthesis of high-value platform chemicals. In particular, the process should avoid separate fermentation steps and the costly purification of intermediates.
Solution
A microbial consortium technology enables the direct conversion of CO₂-containing gas streams into high-value platform chemicals. The technology combines acetogenic bacteria with a genetically optimized strain of Corynebacterium glutamicum. The process is carried out under anaerobic conditions in a single bioreactor.
The acetogenic microorganisms initially fix the CO₂ contained in the gas stream and convert the carbon into acetate and other short-chain organic intermediates. These intermediates are directly taken up by Corynebacterium glutamicum and further converted into the desired target products.
The process enables the production of cadaverine, glutarate and 5-aminovalerate. CO₂ fixation and product synthesis take place within a single fermentation process, eliminating the need for an additional fermentation step or intermediate purification.
CO₂-containing industrial gas streams can be used as the feedstock. In addition to CO₂, these gas streams may also contain CO and hydrogen. The technology therefore provides an opportunity to directly convert industrial carbon-containing gas streams into high-value
Figure AI-gernerated (TLB GmbH)