Microbial biosynthesis of alkanes is considered a promising method for the sustainable production of drop-in fuels and chemicals. Carbon dioxide would be an ideal carbon source for these production systems, but efficient production of long carbon chains from CO is difficult to achieve in a single organism. A potential solution is to employ acetogenic bacteria for the reduction of CO to acetate, and engineer a second organism to convert the acetate into long-chain hydrocarbons.
Microbial biosynthesis of alkanes is considered a promising method for the sustainable production of drop-in fuels and chemicals. Carbon dioxide would be an ideal carbon source for these production systems, but efficient production of long carbon chains from CO is difficult to achieve in a single organism. A potential solution is to employ acetogenic bacteria for the reduction of CO to acetate, and engineer a second organism to convert the acetate into long-chain hydrocarbons.