Solar-to-chemical and solar-to-fuel production from CO2 by metabolically engineered microorganisms

•Development of solar-to-chemical and solar-to-fuel production platforms with bacteria.•Applying CRISPR-Cas9 system to cyanobacteria for solar-to-chemical production.•Integrating bio-electrochemical systems with engineered microbial system.

Recent development of carbon capture utilization (CCU) for reduction of greenhouse gas emission are reviewed. In the case of CO2 utilization, I describe development of solar-to-chemical and solar-to-fuel technology that refers to the use of solar energy to convert CO2 to desired chemicals and fuels. Photoautotrophic cyanobacterial platforms have been extensively developed on this principle, producing a diverse range of alcohols, organic acids, and isoprenoids directly from CO2. Recent breakthroughs in the metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria were reviewed. In addition, adoption of the light harvesting mechanisms from nature, photovoltaics-derived water splitting technologies have recently been integrated with microbial biotechnology to produce desired chemicals. Studies on the integration of electrode material with next-generation microbes are showcased for alternative solar-to-chemical and solar-to-fuel platforms.

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