Enzymatic synthesis of <scp>L</scp>‐lactic acid from carbon dioxide and ethanol with an inherent cofactor regeneration cycle

Abstract

Efficient conversion of carbon dioxide is of great interests to today's endeavors in controlling greenhouse gas emission. A multienzyme catalytic system that uses carbon dioxide and ethanol to produce L-lactate was demonstrated in this work, thereby providing a novel reaction route to convert bio-based ethanol to an important building block for synthesis biodegradable polymers. The synthetic route has a unique internal cofactor regeneration cycle, eliminating the need of additional chemical or energy for cofactor regeneration. Lactate was successfully synthesized with 41% of ethanol converted in a batch reaction, while a turnover number of 2.2 day⁻¹ was reached for cofactor regeneration in a reaction with continuous feeding of ethanol. A kinetic model developed based on reaction kinetic parameters determined separately for each reaction step predicted well the reaction rates and yields of the multienzyme reaction system.