en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Teno Bioworks project, led by Ronja Rappold, Philipp Keller, and Michael Reiter, is developing a technology to convert carbon dioxide into industrial raw materials, aiming to address the carbon emissions and fossil fuel dependency of the chemical industry. Rappold noted that the chemical industry contributes approximately 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while about 96% of everyday products rely on this sector for production.
The core of the technology involves using green methanol as an intermediate step, first converting gaseous carbon dioxide into liquid methanol, which then serves as a feedstock for bacterial fermentation. Unlike carbon dioxide, methanol is liquid, making it easier to store, transport, and precisely meter, thus more suitable for industrial applications. Building on years of research at the laboratory of Julia Vorholt, a microbiology professor at ETH Zurich, the research team has metabolically reprogrammed a bacterium already used in large-scale industrial applications, enabling it to use methanol instead of sugar as a nutrient, thereby establishing a climate-neutral chemical production pathway.
As a platform technology, by adjusting the programming of the microorganisms, it can produce a variety of products, including cosmetic ingredients, insulation materials, and sustainable plastics. Currently, the process has been validated in the laboratory, and initial scale-up steps have been successfully implemented. The project plans to establish a spin-off company, with Rappold serving as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for strategic direction and evaluating technology application scenarios with industry partners. She emphasized that the solution must be economically competitive to promote sustainable production methods as the industry standard.
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