Proteins are an indispensable part of nutrition. They are made up of amino acids, including L-alanine. Until now, most alanine has come from plant sources, which are mainly cultivated in the global south. The fields needed to grow it occupy large areas and affect biodiversity there. A research team at the Technical University of Munich has now presented an alternative production route: It is a biotechnological process based on the use of CO2 and green hydrogen as raw materials. The team led by Volker Sieber from the TUM Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability reports in the journal Chem Catalysis.

Cell-free process with synthetic enzymes

Sieber's team has succeeded in developing synthetic enzymes that produce L-alanine from green methanol in a multi-step process. According to the researchers, this bioprocess, a kind of artificial photosynthesis, is very effective and already produces high product yields.

However, the methanol is only an intermediate product in the entire process. The actual starting materials are carbon dioxide, which can be taken from the atmosphere or industrial waste gases, and hydrogen, which can be produced in a climate-friendly way with the help of green electricity. Together with green electricity, methanol is produced from the two gases in a so-called power-to-X process.