Invizyne Technologies

Invizyne Technologies proposes an electrically powered cell-free enzymatic approach for upgrading ethanol into more useful chemicals. Because carbon for 99% of organic chemicals is petroleum-derived, replacing petroleum carbon with carbon captured from the atmosphere could greatly mitigate carbon emissions. Atmospheric CO2 represents a potentially limitless source of inexpensive carbon, but there are significant challenges to converting captured CO2 into useful chemicals and fuels. While recent technologies can capture CO2 by converting it into simple chemicals such as formate or ethanol, these molecules have limited applications. INvizyne Technologies’ approach would enable efficient, economical, bio-based, and carbon negative chemical production from CO2 neutral/negative ethanol and formate. Successful completion of the project will demonstrate that cell-free biocatalysis (using enzymes to catalyze multi-step chemical reactions in vitro) can complement cell-based metabolic engineering. The project will help diversify existing ethanol markets and seed a carbon-negative chemical industry.

The application of biology to sustainable uses of waste carbon resources for the generation of energy, intermediates, and final products---i.e., supplanting the “bioeconomy”—provides economic, environmental, social, and national security benefits and offers a promising means of carbon management.