Continuous Fatty Acid Decarboxylation using an Immobilized Photodecarboxylase in a Membrane Reactor

The realm of photobiocatalytic alkane biofuel synthesis has burgeoned recently; however, the current dearth of well-established and scalable production methodologies in this domain remains conspicuous. In this investigation, we engineered a modified form of membrane-associated fatty acid photodecarboxylase sourced from Micractinium conductrix (McFAP). This endeavour resulted in creating an innovative assembled photoenzyme-membrane (protein load 5 mg cm-2), subsequently integrated into an illuminated flow apparatus to achieve uninterrupted generation of alkane biofuels. Through batch experiments, the photoenzyme-membrane exhibited its prowess in converting fatty acids spanning varying chain lengths (C6-C18). Following this, the membrane-flow mesoscale reactor attained a maximum space-time yield of 1.2 mmol L-1 h-1 (C8) and demonstrated commendable catalytic proficiency across eight consecutive cycles, culminating in a cumulative runtime of eight hours. These findings collectively underscored the photoenzyme-membrane's capability to facilitate the biotransformation of diverse fatty acids, furnishing valuable benchmarks for the conversion of biomass via photobiocatalysis. This is an assembled photoenzyme-loaded membrane mesoscale reactor based on the behavior of biomolecules in nature, which produces different chain-length alkane biofuels in an unreported continuous manner.image

Automated summary

This study engineered a modified form of a photodecarboxylase enzyme and successfully integrated it into a membrane, leading to continuous generation of alkane biofuels. The photoenzyme-loaded membrane demonstrated its capability in converting fatty acids of varying chain lengths and exhibited commendable catalytic proficiency in eight consecutive cycles.