{"id":173125,"date":"2026-02-12T07:29:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T06:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=173125"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:19:11","slug":"unist-and-uc-berkeley-develop-microbial-system-to-convert-co%e2%82%82-into-eco-friendly-butanol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/unist-and-uc-berkeley-develop-microbial-system-to-convert-co%e2%82%82-into-eco-friendly-butanol\/","title":{"rendered":"UNIST and UC Berkeley Develop Microbial System to Convert CO\u2082 into Eco-Friendly Butanol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Abstract<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

“The efficient valorization of gaseous C1\u00a0feedstocks, such as CO2, into liquid fuels presents a significant process engineering\u00a0challenge. Here, we design and demonstrate an integrated chemostat system for the continuous synthesis of butanol from CO2\u00a0and\u00a0H2 in a tandem process. Our system architecture sequentially couples two bioreactors housing complementary microorganisms.\u00a0The first stage utilizes\u00a0Sporomusa ovata\u00a0to produce acetate from CO2\u00a0and H2\u00a0autotrophically, which then serves as the sole carbon\u00a0source for metabolically engineered\u00a0Escherichia coli\u00a0in the second stage. Multi-level metabolic engineering of the biocatalyst\u00a0resulted in a butanol titer of 422 \u00b1 4 mg L\u22121 in batch cultures. The two-stage continuous system serves as a proof-of-concept,\u00a0producing 4.8 mg L\u22121 h\u22121 of butanol from CO2via acetate as an intermediate. While not yet meeting established economic\u00a0benchmarks, this study reveals critical optimization targets and establishes a foundational and scalable framework for converting\u00a0CO2\u00a0to butanol.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A joint research team from UNIST and the\u00a0University of California, Berkeley has unveiled\u00a0a novel microbial process\u00a0to convert carbon dioxide (CO\u2082) into butanol, an environmentally friendly fuel. This innovative approach utilizes a continuous bioprocess involving two specialized microorganisms working in tandem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With increasing urgency to address climate change, converting greenhouse gases into valuable resources has become a key focus of sustainable innovation. Microbial conversion offers a sustainable solution, as microbes naturally consume CO\u2082, producing useful compounds with minimal energy and without relying on expensive catalysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The system links two microorganisms in a streamlined production line.\u00a0The first stage utilizes\u00a0S. ovata<\/em>\u00a0to produce acetate\u00a0(CH\u2083COOH) from CO2<\/sub> and H2<\/sub> autotrophically. This simple molecule then serves as the sole carbon source for metabolically engineered\u00a0E. coli<\/em>, which synthesizes butanol (C\u2084H\u2089OH)\u2014a versatile liquid fuel. This division of labor addresses the limitations of single-microbe systems in converting gaseous CO\u2082 directly into complex fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Fig.
Figure 1. Schematic of microbial production of butanol with two chemostats.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The team further improved E. coli\u2019<\/em>s butanol production efficiency by approximately 3.8 times through targeted genetic modifications. By optimizing acetate uptake and redirecting metabolic energy toward butanol synthesis, they enhanced overall productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The continuous system operated stably for over 90 hours, producing butanol solely from CO\u2082 and hydrogen, without the need for external organic carbon sources. Hydrogen fuels the initial conversion of CO\u2082 into acetate, which is then transformed into butanol by the engineered bacteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Professor Jinhyun Kim from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UNIST<\/strong> stated, \u201cSuccessfully integrating two continuously operated bioreactors to sustain steady input and output demonstrates a significant advance. With further optimization, this platform has the potential to serve as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels and help accelerate a transition to a carbon-neutral future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This work was led by Professors Douglas S. Clark and Peidong Yang of UC Berkeley\u2019s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Department of Chemistry, respectively, with Professor Jinhyun Kim of UNIST serving as the first author. The research was published in the online version of Bioresource Technology<\/em> on December 24, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Journal Reference<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hye-Jin Jo, Hee-Jeong Cha, Jinhyun Kim,\u00a0et al.<\/em>, \u201cTwo-stage process and strain engineering for continuous bioconversion of CO2 to butanol,\u201d\u00a0Bioresour. Technol.<\/em>, (2025). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.biortech.2025.133842<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abstract “The efficient valorization of gaseous C1\u00a0feedstocks, such as CO2, into liquid fuels presents a significant process engineering\u00a0challenge. Here, we design and demonstrate an integrated chemostat system for the continuous synthesis of butanol from CO2\u00a0and\u00a0H2 in a tandem process. Our system architecture sequentially couples two bioreactors housing complementary microorganisms.\u00a0The first stage utilizes\u00a0Sporomusa ovata\u00a0to produce acetate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":173128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"The research was published in the online version of Bioresource Technology on December 24, 2025","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[5714,12437,10744,12330,10416,12615,10743],"supplier":[13125,22751],"class_list":["post-173125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-biofuels","tag-butanol","tag-carboncapture","tag-ccu","tag-circulareconomy","tag-microbes","tag-useco2","supplier-unist","supplier-university-of-california-berkeley-uc-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173125"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=173125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}