Process Cascade for the Production of Green Polymers from CO2 and Electric Energy

Production processes based on CO2 as raw material offer high scalability and sustainability. Here, a novel process cascade is introduced, combining the advantages of electrochemical CO2 conversion with the synthetic potential of industrial biotechnology: CO2 is electrocatalytically reduced to formic acid as substrate for the metabolically engineered bacterium Methylorubrum extorquens that produces l-lysine as precursor of the polymer building block 1,5-diaminopentane (cadaverine). Cadaverine is purified through targeted downstream processing and finally used in a polycondensation process to produce polyamide materials.