Hybrid synthesis of polyhydroxybutyrate bioplastics from carbon dioxide.

Global sustainable development has intensified the demand for switching to a renewable economy with a reduced carbon footprint. Here, we report a hybrid system, coupling a chemical process for CO2 reduction with hydrogen, and a biological process for polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) synthesis, capable of converting CO2 into bioplastics with a theoretical carbon yield of 100%. The synthetic pathway from CO2 to PHB was modularly optimized by improving the catalytic efficiency of key enzymes, avoiding the kinetic trap of metabolic flux and optimizing the whole catalytic process, resulting in 5.96 g L−1 PHB with a productivity of 1.19 g L−1 h−1 and a molar CO2 utilization efficiency of 71.8%. These results represent a promising closed-loop production process from CO2 to biodegradable plastics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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