Beyond Haber-Bosch: Fermentation-Driven Nitrogen Fixation via Synthetic Biology

Purpose and goal:

Our project at Lund University explores microbial systems for nitrogen fixation to develop sustainable processes to produce chemicals through precision fermentation. By using atmospheric nitrogen as the sole nitrogen source, we aim to reduce dependence on Haber-Bosch-nitrogen and promote more sustainable biochemical production methods. The purpose of the project is to develop biotechnology based on synthetic biology to integrate nitrogen fixation in fermentation processes and thus we strive to enable more sustainable chemical production.

Expected results and effects:

Expected effects and results are to demonstrate the technical feasibility and viability of our proposed technical solution. Approach and implementation:

Our project is organized into three distinct work packages. These work packages include the design and synthesis of codon-optimized biosynthetic gene clusters, microbial strain construction, characterization of system for microbial biomass and alkylamine production, and evaluation of the innovation potential of the developed technology.