What is it about?
Photosynthetic cyanobacteria hold a great potential for the direct conversion of solar energy and CO2 into ‘green’ ethylene. The research article describes a method for engineering a thin-layer artificial biofilm technology capable of sustainable and long-term ethylene photoproduction.
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Photo by Rampal Singh on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Ethylene is one of the most important and widely used organic chemicals, which is mainly produced via steam cracking of hydrocarbons. The process requires a significant supply of energy and leads to a huge release of CO2 into the atmosphere. In contrast, cyanobacteria could photosynthesize ethylene from atmospheric CO2 using sunlight as the only energy source.
Perspectives
This research opens up new possibilities for the further development of efficient solid-state photosynthetic cell factories for ethylene production and scaling up the process up to the industrial level.
Dr Sergey N Kosourov
Turun Yliopisto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Towards sustainable ethylene production with cyanobacterial artificial biofilms, Green Chemistry, January 2020, Royal Society of Chemistry,
DOI: 10.1039/d0gc01830a.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Artificial Cyanobacterial Biofilm Can Sustain Solar-driven Ethylene Production for Over a Month
Ethylene is one of the most important and widely used organic chemicals. The research group at the University of Turku led by Associate Professor Yagut Allahverdiyeva-Rinne has designed a thin-layer artificial biofilm with embedded cyanobacterial cell factories which were specifically engineered for photosynthetic production of “green” ethylene. The fabricated biofilms have sustained ethylene production for up to 40 days.
Elias Tillandz Prize 2020 Awarded to Sustainable Biotechnology Researchers in BioCity Symposium
This research paper was recognized by the Elias Tillandz prize as the best scientific paper published in 2020 in BioCity Turku.
NordAqua – Nordic Center of Excellence
NordAqua is a consortium of 10 Nordic universities and research institutes along with 10 industrial partners and several societal stakeholders. NordAqua brings together world-leading academic researchers in the fields of photosynthesis, synthetic biology, industrial biotechnology, microbiology, medical sciences, water management, and entrepreneurship in order to form a unique hub for cross-border Nordic collaboration within blue-green bioeconomy.
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