Upcycling of CO2 into long-chain carbon compounds

Dueto the traditional sequential C–C coupling mechanism, the directelectroreduction of CO2 or CO to long-chain carbon products such as C3+products with good selectivity is challenging. Given this, we proposed abrand-new pathway based on the coupling of electrocatalysis and syntheticbiology technology. We first convert CO2 to high-purity liquid products. Then theliquid can be directly consumed by genetically engineered yeast for microbialfermentation, yielding valuable long carbon chain molecules such as glucose andfree fatty acids. Our work opens up new opportunities for food production withrenewable electricity.

In the next stage, we will scale up our electrolyzersand demonstrate the commercial opportunities for CO2-derived products at anindustrial scale. We will further reduce the cost by improving the stacks' faradaic efficiency and service life, as well as designing novel reactors that simplify the downstream separation process. Furthermore, we seek to exploitmore innovative technologies that can directly convert ambient abundant resources(e.g., air and water) to chemicals, fuels, drugs, and even foods.