FMSG: Bio: Merging electrochemistry and metabolic engineering for carbon neutral ammonia production

FMSG：生物：融合电化学和代谢工程以生产碳中性氨

• 批准号: 2328100
• 负责人: Ruggero Rossi
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2328100&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: FMSG; Bio; Merging; electrochemistry; metabolic

Ammonia is a critical component of nitrogen-based fertilizers, crucial in intensive agriculture to feed a continuously growing world population. Distributed, sustainable ammonia manufacturing, powered by renewable electricity and catalyzed by electroactive living microorganisms can have a tremendous impact on global energy consumption and related carbon emissions. This project addresses the critical societal need to enable decentralized ammonia manufacturing at the site of use such as a farm or municipality while simultaneously lowering carbon emissions. Such innovation will result in more equitable food production practices and infrastructure across the country, leading to sustainable agricultural practices across the globe. The outreach activities will broaden the societal impact of this work and train a future workforce aware of the impact of a sustainable chemical industry on the environment. On a K-12 level, this project will create new activities illustrating the potential of merging biology and electrochemistry for the sustainable production of fuels and energy. On a community college level, this project will launch a networking event, connecting students with innovative startups focusing on sustainability and circularity. On an undergraduate and graduate students level, this project will integrate new material on environmental electrochemistry in environmental engineering courses.Current ammonia manufacturing is dominated by the carbon and energy intensive Haber-Bosch process, which was responsible for the emission of 600 Mt of CO2 and the consumption of 2% of the global energy produced in 2021. This future manufacturing seed grant will support fundamental research on convergent electrochemistry and metabolic engineering approaches to enable carbon-neutral production of ammonia, merging the productivity and efficiency of electrochemical synthesis with the exquisite selectivity and low cost of ammonia generation by nitrogen-fixing bacteria. This novel approach is based on a looped zero-gap electrochemical cell, coupling ammonia production from bacteria with abiotic carbon dioxide reduction to organic acids at the cathode. On the electrochemistry side, the project will (i) optimize the electron transport chain and improve nitrogenase activity and selectivity at the anode and (ii) maximize carbon dioxide reduction selectivity at the cathode. On the metabolic engineering side, the research will (a) manipulate metabolic and regulatory pathways to increase ammonia productivity and (b) enhance ammonia excretion. The successful outcome of this approach will be demonstrated by developing and testing a bench-scale, high-fidelity reactor for continuous production of ammonia at commercially relevant conditions that can be further scaled up to be implemented as an operating unit on an individual farm.This Future Manufacturing project is jointly funded by the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences in the Directorate for Biological Sciences, the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems in the Directorate for Engineering, and the Division of Chemistry in the Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

氨是基于氮的肥料的关键组成部分，在密集农业中至关重要，以养活不断增长的世界人口。分布式，可持续的氨制造业，由可再生电力提供支持，并由电活性活体微生物催化，可能会对全球能源消耗和相关碳排放产生巨大影响。该项目解决了在使用场所（例如农场或市政当局）同时降低碳​​排放的情况下，在使用场所（例如农场或市政当局）实现分散的氨制造的关键社会需求。这种创新将导致全国更公平的粮食生产实践和基础设施，从而导致全球可持续的农业实践。外展活动将扩大这项工作的社会影响，并培训未来的劳动力，了解可持续化学工业对环境的影响。在K-12级别上，该项目将创建新的活动，以说明将生物学和电化学合并以供燃料和能源的可持续生产。在社区大学一级，该项目将启动一个网络活动，将学生与专注于可持续性和循环系统的创新初创公司联系起来。在本科生和研究生级别上，该项目将在环境工程课程中整合有关环境电化学的新材料。当前的氨制造以碳和能源密集的HABER-BOSCH流程为主导代谢工程方法可以使氨的产生氨，将电化学合成的生产率和效率与氮固定细菌的精致选择性和低成本产生相融合在一起。这种新颖的方法基于一个循环的零间隙电化学细胞，将氨的产生偶联，从二氧化苯二氧化碳的细菌到阴极的有机酸。在电化学方面，该项目将（i）优化电子传输链并改善阳极处的氮气活性和选择性，（ii）在阴极处最大化二氧化碳的选择性。在代谢工程方面，该研究将（a）操纵代谢和调节途径，以提高氨的生产率，并（b）增强氨排泄。这种方法的成功结果将通过开发和测试基于商业相关条件下氨的台式，高保真反应堆，以持续生产氨，可以进一步扩展以作为单个农场的运营单位实施，以未来的制造项目为单独的生产项目。该奖项在数学和物理科学局的工程局和化学局中。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准通过评估来支持的。