Harnessing Escherichia coli for bio-based production of formate under pressurized H ₂ and CO ₂ gases

ABSRACT Escherichia coli is gram-negative bacterium that is a workhorse of the biotechnology industry. The organism has a flexible metabolism and can perform a mixed-acid fermentation under anaerobic conditions. Under these conditions E. coli synthesises a formate hydrogenlyase isoenzyme (FHL-1) that can generate molecular hydrogen and carbon dioxide from formic acid. The reverse reaction is hydrogen-dependent carbon dioxide reduction (HDCR), which has exciting possibilities in bio-based carbon capture and storage if it can be harnessed. In this study, an E. coli host strain was optimised for the production of formate from H 2 and CO 2 during bacterial growth in a pressurised batch bioreactor. A host strain was engineered that constitutively produced the FHL-1 enzyme and incorporation of tungsten in to the enzyme, in place of molybdenum, helped poise the reaction in the HDCR direction. The engineered E. coli strain showed an ability to grow under fermentative conditions while simultaneously producing formate from gaseous H 2 and CO 2 supplied in the bioreactor. However, while a sustained pressure of 10 bar N 2 had no adverse effect on cell growth, when the culture was placed at or above 4 bar pressure of a H 2 :CO 2 mixture then a clear growth deficiency was observed. Taken together, this work demonstrates that growing cells can be harnessed to hydrogenate carbon dioxide and provides fresh evidence that the FHL-1 enzyme may be intimately linked with bacterial energy metabolism.