Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 114, Issue 25, Pages 6450-6455Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1706371114
Keywords
nitrogen fixation; Xanthobacter; ammonia synthesis; fertilizer; solar
Categories
Funding
- Lee Kuan Yew Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Harvard University Center for the Environment Fellowship
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program
- Office of Naval Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative Award [N00014-11-1-0725]
- Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering
- Harvard University Climate Change Solutions Fund
- Campus Sustainability Innovation Fund
- First 100 W Project by the TomKat Foundation
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We demonstrate the synthesis of NH3 from N-2 and H2O at ambient conditions in a single reactor by coupling hydrogen generation from catalytic water splitting to a H-2-oxidizing bacterium Xanthobacter autotrophicus, which performs N-2 and CO2 reduction to solid biomass. Living cells of X. autotrophicus may be directly applied as a biofertilizer to improve growth of radishes, a model crop plant, by up to similar to 1,440% in terms of storage root mass. The NH3 generated from nitrogenase (N(2)ase) in X. autotrophicus can be diverted from biomass formation to an extracellular ammonia production with the addition of a glutamate synthetase inhibitor. The N-2 reduction reaction proceeds at a low driving force with a turnover number of 9 x 10(9) cell(-1) and turnover frequency of 1.9 x 10(4) s(-1).cell(-1) without the use of sacrificial chemical reagents or carbon feedstocks other than CO2. This approach can be powered by renewable electricity, enabling the sustainable and selective production of ammonia and biofertilizers in a distributed manner.
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