- Exploring new halo-autotrophic pathways for the development of a novel cost-effective dual methane and carbon dioxide elimination technology: ENHANCEMENT
In its climate and energy policy framework for 2030, the EU has set a target of reducing emissions to 40 % below 1990 levels by 2030. Methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions represent approximately 90% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide, and their share is expected to increase due to their industrial and organic-based nature as well as the increasing world population. The EU-funded ENHANCEMENT project will develop a friendly biotechnological strategy to convert CH4 and CO2 into the most expensive compound produced by microorganisms: ectoine. Thus, in this project, bacteria will be used to transform the two most important GHGs into compounds with a high market value. This interdisciplinary investigation will assist the EU to achieve its emission reduction targets.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 897284.
- Autotrophic Microbes-based Bio-refInery: Generating value out of CO2 and CO EliminaTion: AMBIENT
Cell factories based on the use of CO2 and CO are scarcely implemented in today’s industry due to the lack of cost-effectiveness. Moreover, the simultaneous biotransformation of both gases into valuable compounds has been completely disregarded in research. Using metagenomic databases, we have found microorganisms that have the genes to potentially use both gases simultaneously, and transform them into metabolites with a very high profit-value. AMBIENT aims to demonstrate, from a fundamental and technical perspective, the first proof-of-concept of a novel biotechnology based on the production of ectoines (1800 €-kg-1) using CO2 as carbon source and CO as energy source.