CARBONOVA
Combining Nanotechnology and Biotechnology to Achieve Efficient Carbon Capture, Enhancing Sustainability and Combating Rising Carbon Emissions
Transforming carbon emissions into valuable resources for a sustainable future.
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About
The increasing concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide is a major driver of climate change,
creating an urgent need for effective carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)
technologies. CCUS involves capturing carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and either
converting or storing it to mitigate its environmental impact.
Carbonic anhydrase (CA), an enzyme that catalyzes the rapid conversion of carbon dioxide into bicarbonate ions and, furthermore, into valuable biomass. Various isoforms of Carbonic Anhydrase are available depending upon the source of organism, which may result in varying activity and stability.
Using nanotechnology, we synthesized ferromagnetic nanoparticles and functionalized them with a carboxyl group to act as the anchors for the enzyme, enhancing its stability, reusability, and separation efficiency.
This immobilized CA system offers a sustainable approach to capture carbon dioxide and convert it into cellular biomass. The biomass can then be processed to produce valuable products, such as biofuels, antioxidants, biogas, etc.
Several approaches were tried as an economical means of obtaining the Carbonic Anhydrase enzyme. The first was using biotechnology, wherein recombinant CA of Saccharomyces cerevisiae origin was expressed in Pichia pastoris.
Finally, CA from spinach was extracted and immobilized, and their activity was measured using different quantitative techniques. We aim to research and study the activity and economical means of production of different CA enzymes immobilized on the nanoparticles to further optimize this CCUS technology.
