Making a carbon-capturing enzyme water-fearing allows it to trap 100 times more CO2 than it does in its natural state.
Carbonic anhydrase is a natural champion at moving CO2, but it usually gets lost in the bulk of a liquid where it is less effective. By adding greasy, hydrophobic groups to its surface, researchers forced the enzyme to sit exactly at the boundary where air meets water. This is the precise spot where CO2 is most concentrated and easiest to grab. The modification increases the enzyme's performance by over two orders of magnitude compared to standard versions. This simple chemical tweak could make biological carbon capture a viable tool for cleaning up industrial exhaust.
HYDROFOBIC MODIFICATIONS OF CARBONIC ANHYDRASE DISTINCTIVELY IMPROVE PERFORMANCE IN BIOCATALYTIC CARBON CAPTURE
ChemRxiv · 10.26434/chemrxiv.15002785/v1
The enzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA) can accelerate gas-liquid mass transfer of CO2, and extensive research is exploring how to leverage this in industrial carbon capture. At the molecular level, CA promotes capture by catalyzing the conversion of CO2 to bicarbonate near the gas-liquid interface. This mechanism implies that only a minor fraction of the enzyme at the interface actively contributes to capture, and as a result, efficient capture requires high enzyme dosages. Here, we designed and syn