Synthetic Biology Creates a Biosolar Factory to Make Biofuels Directly from Air and Water

What is it about?

The world is currently facing two pressing problems: fossil fuel depletion and global climate change due to elevated CO2 emissions. This paper demonstrates a novel pathway for directly converting CO2 back to fuel molecules, thus, simultaneously solving these two dependent problems. Through genetic engineering of a N2-fixing cyanobacterium, we have successfully created a biosolar factory named “cyanofactory” for the production and SECRETION of alka(e)nes using only the air (CO2 and N2), and H2O.

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Why is it important?

Current biomass-based pathway for biofuel production is facing two big challenges: requirement for fossil fuel-dependent nitrogen fertilizer and inefficient conversion of cellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars. To address both challenges, we use synthetic biology to harness N2-fixing cyanobacteria as a biosoalr factory named “cyanofactory” to directly make biofuel from the Air (CO2, N2) and mineralized water. Our cyanofactory bypasses the biomass pathway and no need of nitrogen fertilizer!