Plug'n Play Photosynthesis for Rubisco Independent Fuels

用于 Rubisco 独立燃料的即插即用光合作用

基本信息

批准号：
BB/I02447X/1
负责人：
Thomas Bibby
金额：
$ 38.3万
依托单位：
University of Southampton
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2011
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2011 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FI02447X%2F1
关键词：
Plug Play Photosynthesis Rubisco Independent

项目摘要

Supplying the world's energy needs with a clean, renewable fuel is perhaps the most pressing scientific and political challenge facing humanity. The solar energy hitting the earth's surface is more than sufficient to fulfill these needs. In fact, our current economy is predicated on the burning of cheap fossil fuels, relics of ancient photosynthesis. Unfortunately, our rate of use of these fuels far outstrips their production, and is also producing carbon dioxide at potentially environmentally acceptable rates. Thus, it has become essential to develop new routes to directly produce chemical fuels, i.e. energy storage molecules, from solar energy. Biological systems solved this problem through the development of photosynthesis. However, organisms have been evolved for biological fitness, not for human fuel production. Under high light conditions, RuBisCO, the enzyme catalyzing the rate limiting step in CO2 fixation, becomes saturated. Under those conditions, the Calvin Cycle becomes down-regulated and the majority of light energy absorbed is lost as heat. New strategies are needed to improve utilization of this light energy to produce fuels. Our strategy to solve this problem is to create a trans-cellular, plug-and-play platform that allows us to shunt electrons from photosynthetic source cells to independently engineered fuel production modules along nanowires (these could be microbial based, partly or even totally synthetic). The project represents a radical approach to augment and surpass photosynthetic strategies observed in Nature by engineering modular division of labor through electrical connectivity

为人类面临的最紧迫的科学和政治挑战，为世界的能源需求提供清洁，可再生的燃料。击中地球表面的太阳能足以满足这些需求。实际上，我们当前的经济是基于燃烧廉价化石燃料的燃烧，即古代光合作用的遗物。不幸的是，我们对这些燃料的使用速度远远超过了它们的生产，并且还以潜在的环境可接受的速率生产二氧化碳。因此，开发直接产生化学燃料的新途径，即从太阳能中产生化学燃料，即储能分子。生物系统通过光合作用的发展解决了这个问题。然而，生物体的生物适应性已经进化，而不是人类燃料的生产。在高光条件下，Rubisco是催化二氧化碳固定速率限制步骤的酶变得饱和。在这些条件下，加尔文循环被下调，大多数光能吸收为热量。需要采取新的策略来改善这种轻能生产燃料的利用。我们解决此问题的策略是创建一个跨细胞插件平台，该平台使我们能够从光合源单元中分流电子沿纳米线的独立设计燃料生产模块（这些可能是基于微生物，部分甚至是完全合成的）。该项目代表了一种激进的方法，用于通过电气连通性工程模块化劳动分工在自然界中观察到的光合作用策略