SusChEM Collaborative Research: Biocomposite Biocatalysts formed by Desiccation of Living Cells on Porous Substrates for Recycling Gaseous Carbon to Fuels and Chemicals

1510072

Flickinger, Michael C.

Algae trap and recycle enormous quantities of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide each year. This project will develop methods to fabricate biocomposite materials containing highly concentrated non-growing cyanobacteria, or algae, concentrated on or within paper or fabricated as multi-layered materials and hydrated through channels. These artificial leaf-like biocomposite materials could be used to harvest sunlight and recycle GHG carbon into fuels and chemicals. This project will engineer algae to tolerate drying so that desiccated biocomposites can be stored and shipped without loss of reactivity and hydrated at the site of use. Using non-growing dry-stabilized cyanobacteria or algae in biocomposite materials to trap solar energy will require significantly less water and is more efficient in trapping GHGs than using growing algae suspended in photobioreactors.

This project will reveal molecular mechanisms for preserving the viability and reactivity during controlled drying of cyanobacteria and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Methods will be developed to sustain the photoreactivity of non-growing algae, enhance CO2 absorption and significantly extend their catalytic life embedded within composite materials when rehydrated. This will be investigated by approaches to (i) optimize biocomposite nanoporous microstructure, including providing nutrients and recovering gases by engineered microchannels, (ii) optimize biopreservation using osmoprotectant carbohydrate glasses, control desiccation rate and determine critical residual bound and free water surrounding and within the cells monitored by Raman microspectroscopy plus desiccation stress induced reporters, and (iii) apply synthetic biology to desiccation-sensitive algae to engineer the trehalose transport system from Polyplodium vanderplanki into C. reinhardtii. This has been demonstrated using the CHO TRET1 cell line to enable trehalose transport into CHO cells to enhance dry stabilization. The team of investigators include a microbial biotechnologist expert in biocomposites, a soft matter expert who pioneered biocolloidal live cell assembly and a mechanical engineer with expertise in the anhydrobiology engineering of nucleated cells and controlled drying rate monitored by Raman microspectroscopy. Biocomposite materials containing microchannels and layers of synergistic dry stabilized live cells could provide a new way for carbon recycling. This project will provide cross-disciplinary STEM education for engineers, who will work in a multidisciplinary project spanning chemical engineering, nanoscience, mechanical engineering, microfluidics, synthetic biology, anhydrobiology and reaction kinetics.

This award by the Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering Program of the CBET Division is co-funded by the Systems and Synthetic Biology Program of the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biology.