High intensity enzymatic biocatalysis for direct conversion of solar energy into chemicals and fuels

Conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels is one of the key focal points in today's endeavors pursuing renewable energies, and control of CO₂ emission is critical to environment's sustainable wellbeing. Toward that, one promising approach is to integrate solar energy harvesting with with production of fuels from CO₂. Although nature has been performing CO₂ fixation consistently over the evolution histry of life on earth, photosynthesis by living biological systems, limited by its slow speed and living conditions, is not suited for CO₂ capture and utilization at concentrated emmission source points. Alternatively, isolated enzymes, which can be operated in artificial reactors for enhanced reaction efficacy, have also been shown capable of catalyzing the reduction of CO₂ at ambient conditions. However, the reported reaction rates and equilibrium concentrations still fall distant from any practical applications for large scale CO₂ sequestration. One question natrually arises is that, how is the possibility of overcoming the limitations of nature and biological systems to capitalizing on efficient CO₂ sequestration and utilization. This presentation overviews the challenges and opportunities in developing biomolecule and nanomaterials-based technologies toward a sustainable carbon economy.