Engineering Biocatalytic Solar Fuel Production: The PHOTOFUEL Consortium

Julian Wichmann¹, Kyle J. Lauersen¹, Natascia Biondi², Magnus Christensen³, Tiago Guerra⁴, Klaus Hellgardt⁵, Simon Kühner⁶, Markku Kuronen⁷, Pia Lindberg⁸, Christine Rösch⁹, Ian S. Yunus¹⁰, Patrik Jones¹⁰, Peter Lindblad⁸, Olaf Kruse¹

Bielefeld University, Faculty of Biology, Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Universitätsstrasse 27, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany.

Abstract

The EU Horizon2020 consortium PHOTOFUEL joined academic and industrial partners from biology, chemistry, engineering, engine design, and lifecycle assessment, making tremendous progress towards engine-ready fuels from CO2 via engineered photosynthetic microbes. Technical, environmental, economic, and societal opportunities and challenges were explored to frame future technology realization at scale.

Keywords: fuels, photo-biomanufacturing, engine tests, lifecycle assessment, techno-economic analysis.