Metabolic engineering of microorganisms for the production of ethanol and butanol from oxides of carbon

Abstract

The utilized biomass is an important consideration for sustainable biofuel production. To avoid competing with food needs, researchers have turned their attention to non-food lignocellulosic biomasses as potential feedstocks for biofuel production. However, the saccharification of a lignocellulosic biomass produces a large amount of lignin as waste. To overcome this hurdle, biomass gasification has been suggested as an alternative to saccharification. During biomass gasification, oxides of carbon (CO, CO2) and hydrogen are produced as a major product. Accordingly, microorganisms capable of utilizing these oxides of carbon have gained attention as hosts for the production of biofuels, such as ethanol and butanol. In this work, we reviewed the Calvin cycle and Wood-Ljungdahl pathway for utilizing oxides of carbon in cyanobacteria and acetogens, respectively, and discussed the metabolic engineering strategies that may be used to produce ethanol and butanol from oxides of carbon through these routes.