High-Efficiency Conversion of Biomass into Chemicals using Fermentation and Electroreduction

Current bioconversion technologies for producing fuels and chemicals from biomass suffer from significant carbon loses in the form of carbon dioxide. This is a fundamental property of the oxidation states of the inputs and outputs, and it results in low carbon efficiency. Carbon dioxide emitted during bioconversion could be recycled into additional fuels and chemicals. Industrial Microbes and Opus 12 have developed novel biochemical and electrochemical catalysts that can be combined to achieve near 100% carbon conversion. Biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, is used as the renewable starting material for making a target chemical. Carbon dioxide present in the biogas and produced by the fermentation will be recycled to make additional methane, powered by renewable electricity. The process starts with waste biogas from a biorefinery, wastewater treatment plant, or other biogas source. In Phase I, two complementary technologies will be improved and combined. First, the robustness of an electrochemical reactor that utilizes renewable electricity to recycle carbon dioxide to methane production will be improved. Next, a biocatalyst that converts methane to three-carbon chemicals will be optimized. Finally, the electrochemical reactor will be combined with the biocatalyst to fully convert biogas carbon to the target product. At the end of Phase I, the teams will demonstrate production of a chemical target from both methane and carbon dioxide. In Phase II, the teams will integrate and optimize their catalysts into a single product.