Liu Guangyu, Zhong Yuan, Liu Zehua, Wang Gang, Gao Feng, Zhang Chao, Wang Yujie, Zhang Hongwei, Ma Jun, Hu Yangguang, Chen Aobo, Pan Jiangyuan, Min Yuanzeng, Tang Zhiyong, Gao Chao, Xiong Yujie
Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovative Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (iChEM), School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China.
Suzhou Institute for Advanced Research, Nano Science and Technology Institute, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China.
Nat Commun. 2024 Mar 25;15(1):2636. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46954-w.
Conventional food production is restricted by energy conversion efficiency of natural photosynthesis and demand for natural resources. Solar-driven artificial food synthesis from CO provides an intriguing approach to overcome the limitations of natural photosynthesis while promoting carbon-neutral economy, however, it remains very challenging. Here, we report the design of a hybrid electrocatalytic-biocatalytic flow system, coupling photovoltaics-powered electrocatalysis (CO to formate) with five-enzyme cascade platform (formate to sugar) engineered via genetic mutation and bioinformatics, which achieves conversion of CO to C sugar (L-sorbose) with a solar-to-food energy conversion efficiency of 3.5%, outperforming natural photosynthesis by over three-fold. This flow system can in principle be programmed by coupling with diverse enzymes toward production of multifarious food from CO. This work opens a promising avenue for artificial food synthesis from CO under confined environments.
传统食品生产受到自然光合作用的能量转换效率和对自然资源需求的限制。由二氧化碳驱动的太阳能人工食品合成提供了一种引人入胜的方法,既能克服自然光合作用的局限性,又能促进碳中性经济,然而,这仍然极具挑战性。在此,我们报告了一种混合电催化-生物催化流动系统的设计,该系统将光伏驱动的电催化(二氧化碳转化为甲酸盐)与通过基因突变和生物信息学设计的五酶级联平台(甲酸盐转化为糖)相结合,实现了将二氧化碳转化为C糖(L-山梨糖),太阳能到食品的能量转换效率为3.5%,比自然光合作用高出三倍多。该流动系统原则上可以通过与多种酶耦合进行编程,以从二氧化碳生产多种食品。这项工作为在受限环境下由二氧化碳进行人工食品合成开辟了一条充满希望的途径。