International Sugar Journal

Elusive carbon dioxide sensor in plants controlling water loss – identified [Full subscriber]

Scientists at the University of California San Diego have recently made a breakthrough in identifying the long-sought carbon dioxide (CO2) sensor in plants and unravelled its functioning parts.

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LanzaTech engineers microbe to produce ethylene from CO2 [Registered]

LanzaTech recently announced that it has successfully engineered a bacterium to produce specialized biocatalysts to produce ethylene from CO2 in a continuous process directly.

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Clostridium autoethanogenum engineered to produce high yields of acetone and isopropanol from waste CO2 [Registered]

Researchers from the biotech start-up LanzaTech, Northwestern University and the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have engineered a microbe to convert industrial waste gases carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into acetone and isopropanol (IPA).

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R. palustris engineered to produce carbon-neutral n-butanol [Full subscriber]

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have engineered a microbe Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE-1 (TIE-1) to produce biofuel from carbon dioxide, solar panel-generated electricity and light.

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Twelve and LanzaTech partner to produce polypropylene from CO2 [Full subscriber]

Biotech start-ups LanzaTech and Twelve have partnered to transform carbon dioxide into polypropylene, a key polymer used for medical devices including syringes and IV bags, as well as for large-scale applications in automotive, furniture, textiles and other everyday products.

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Engineered E. coli has the potential to produce fuel and chemicals from CO2 [Full subscriber]

Researchers from Newcastle University, UK, have engineered Escherichia coli bacteria to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) using hydrogen gas (H2) to convert it into formic acid. The research raises the possibility of converting atmospheric CO2 to commodity chemicals.

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Converting CO2 into butanol using phosphorous-rich copper cathodes [Full subscriber]

Researchers at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea have discovered a new conversion method that turns carbon dioxide into 1-butanol on a phosphorus-rich copper cathode, based on a combination of faradaic and autonomous nonfaradaic reactions.

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France – New plant will gasify hemp into valuable energy products [Full subscriber]

The French startup Qairos Energies says it plans to build a plant in Mareil-en-Champagne near Le Mans in northwestern France that will gasify hemp biomass into valuable products.

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World’s first 1000 tonnes demonstration plant exploiting solar energy to produce methanol from CO2 [Full subscriber]

Researchers at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have installed the world’s first demonstration project for direct solar fuel synthesis started operation in Lanzhou, China on Jan. 17, 2020. The project claims to be the world’s first for industrial production of liquid fuels from solar energy. Sited in China’s western regions where abundant solar energy will invariably be key to the project’s success.

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E. coli metabolically rewired to consume CO2 and produce various by-products [Full subscriber]

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have engineered Escherichia coli that consume just CO2 as their nutrient source, instead of organic compounds. This breakthrough could provide a foundation for harnessing synthetic biology to develop carbon-neutral bioproduction processes for food and fuels.

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