Engineering Microbial Consortium/Combination to Convert CO2/Waste Stream into Useful Chemicals using a Synthetic Biology Approach

This project falls under the umbrella of carbon capture and utilization (CCU), i.e., to turn a greenhouse gas CO2 into a useful feedstock for chemical syntheses. Instead of using a physico-chemical approach to capture CO2 and to transform CO2 into useful chemicals using metal-based catalysts, the project capitalizes on the natural ability of biological systems in carbon capture, carbon concentration and carbon utilization. Specifically, we are interested in exploring the biotechnological potentials of acetogens and related bacterial strains in biological CCU. In addition to mono-culture, the project also explores the use of microbial consortium or two microorganisms in sequential fermentation.

In this project, the student will (1) develop molecular tools for engineering the aforementioned microbial strains, (2) apply metabolic engineering/directed evolution/synthetic biology to tailor/fine-tune the properties of these microorganisms for chemical production, and (3) design industrial processes utilizing these microorganisms and evaluate the techno-economics of biological CCU.