Carbon Dioxide Synthetic Starch, The Future does not need to plant Land?

Carbon Dioxide Synthetic Starch, The Future does not need to plant Land? 

The institute of industrial biotechnology of the chinese academy of sciences in tianjin has made a breakthrough in the artificial synthesis of starch, the first time in the world to achieve carbon dioxide to starch from scratch synthesis. the results were published online september 24 in the international academic journal science.

This result makes it possible to shift the traditional agricultural planting model of starch production to the production mode of industrial workshops and provides a new technical route for the synthesis of complex molecules of carbon dioxide raw materials. experts say it is a disruptive innovation that promises to solve the food problem in the future.

Focus 1: carbon dioxide artificial starch, how to achieve?

Starch is a major carbohydrate with important nutritional value. crops convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into starch through photosynthesis. however, in crops such as corn, the conversion of carbon dioxide into starch involves more than 60 steps of biochemical reactions and complex physiological regulation, and solar energy is no more than 2% efficient to use.

From an energy point of view, the essence of photosynthesis is to convert sunlight energy into chemical energy stored in starch. how can light energy be converted into chemical energy more efficiently?

According to the official website of the chinese academy of sciences, researchers thought of the "light energy - electricity - chemical energy" energy transformation mode, first through photovoltaic power generation to convert light energy into electricity, through photovoltaic hydrolysis to produce hydrogen, and then through catalytic use of hydrogen to reduce carbon dioxide to produce methanol, the energy conversion efficiency of the process is more than 10%, far beyond the energy efficiency of photosynthesis.

Methanol stores energy from solar energy, but there is no life process in nature for methanol to synthesize starch. Using the idea of synthetic biology, the researchers designed artificial routes from methanol to starch from vast amounts of biochemical reaction data.

In order to make the blueprint a reality, the researchers excavated and modified 62 bioenzyme catalysts from 31 different species, such as animals, plants and microorganisms, and finally selected the best, using 10 enzymes to gradually convert one carbon methanol into three carbon dioxyacetone, further converted to six carbon glucose phosphate, and finally into starch.

Focus 2: is synthetic starch the same as natural starch? what are the advantages of this synthesis?

"We passed the scientific gold standard, which is nuclear magnetic testing. comparing our synthetic straight-chain starch and branch-chain starch with those in nature, the results of nuclear magnetism are exactly the same. cai wei, an associate researcher at the tianjin institute of industrial biology at the chinese academy of sciences, said synthetic starch is actually no different from natural starch.

IT IS REPORTED THAT THE TRADITIONAL STARCH DEPENDS ON EXTRACTION, THE PRODUCT IS MOSTLY MACROMOLECULAR BRANCH CHAIN STARCH. ASAP CAN SYNTHESIZE NOT ONLY EASY-TO-DIGEST BRANCH-CHAIN STARCH, BUT ALSO SLOW-DIGESTING, SLOW-RISING SUGAR STRAIGHT-CHAIN STARCH.

the artificial route created by researchers of the chinese academy of sciences to synthesize starch using carbon dioxide and electrical energy involves only 11 biochemical reactions, and the production efficiency of starch is more than 8 times that of corn photosynthesis. the whole process can be carried out in a bioreactor, 1 cubic meter of bioreactor annual production of starch equivalent to 5 acres of land corn cultivation starch yield.

Focus 3: why get rid of plants for carbon dioxide fixation?

Today's world is facing a series of major challenges such as global climate change, food security, shortage of energy resources and ecological environment pollution. the conversion and utilization of carbon dioxide and the synthesis of grain starch industry is one of the major scientific and technological problems to meet the challenges.

With the rapid expansion of the size of the earth's population, the area of arable land available has shrunk, and the problems of food security and food and clothing have become more and more prominent. growing starch-rich foods can meet human demand for starch, but is greatly affected by natural weather and farming. the new results can get rid of the limitations of cultivated land and natural environment, and make it possible to change the traditional agricultural planting mode of starch production to the production mode of industrial workshop.

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