en.Wedoany.com Reported - A research team led by Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin has launched a project called CarboNcare, aiming to cultivate bacteria to convert methanol into chemical feedstocks such as lactic acid, succinic acid, and 2,3-butanediol, replacing traditional fossil-based raw materials. The project has received a Pathfinder Grant of €3.1 million from the European Innovation Council (EIC), which specifically supports breakthrough innovations with high market potential.
Everyday items such as plastics, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics are mostly based on fossil raw materials. The chemical industry relies heavily on finite resources like oil, natural gas, or coal, while alternatives based on sugar and biomass require land use and compete with food production. Dr. Steffen Lindner-Mehlich, project leader of CarboNcare at the Institute of Biochemistry at Charité, stated that the project aims to produce chemicals without relying on fossil or plant-based raw materials, advancing the sustainability of the chemical industry without jeopardizing food security. To this end, the team has explored various biotechnological approaches.
The researchers aim to achieve a circular carbon economy, using carbon dioxide released from burning plastic products at the end of their life cycle as a production basis, creating a carbon cycle with no additional emissions. Currently, capturing carbon dioxide from the air to produce methanol is already feasible, and methanol is a key basic raw material for the chemical industry.
The core of the CarboNcare project is to convert methanol into important intermediate products such as lactic acid, succinic acid, and 2,3-butanediol. These products are used in pharmaceuticals (e.g., tablet coatings), food (e.g., preservatives, flavor enhancers), bioplastics, cosmetics (e.g., lipstick, creams), and rubber for tire manufacturing. The team genetically modifies two bacterial strains, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas putida, enabling them to "consume" methanol and secrete target molecules. Steffen Lindner-Mehlich explains that bacteria typically use energy for their own growth rather than chemical production, so the team links bacterial growth to target product production, prompting bacteria to simultaneously produce target molecules as they grow. This approach increases yield, making the process more robust and predictable, which is crucial for industrial application.
The project team plans to first simulate the biochemical metabolic processes of bacteria on computers before modifying the bacterial organisms. Steffen Lindner-Mehlich emphasizes that beyond molecular biology, the team also focuses on industrial scalability. The fermentation process design must ensure reliable operation at an industrial scale, and its ecological balance and economic viability will be analyzed. The eight European research and industrial partners in the CarboNcare project provide interdisciplinary expertise.
Steffen Lindner-Mehlich hopes to develop a sustainable alternative for the chemical industry that is comparable to existing production methods, enabling climate-neutral production of everyday items such as plastics and cosmetics. The market demand for basic chemicals indicates significant potential for this approach: for lactic acid alone, the global market size was approximately €2.9 billion in 2021 and continues to grow.
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