Carbon Dioxide Utilisation—The Formate Route

Abstract

AbstractThe relentless rise of atmospheric CO2is causing large and unpredictable impacts on the Earth climate, due to the CO2significant greenhouse effect, besides being responsible for the ocean acidification, with consequent huge impacts in our daily lives and in all forms of life. To stop spiral of destruction, we must actively reduce the CO2emissions and develop new and more efficient “CO2sinks”. We should be focused on the opportunities provided by exploiting this novel and huge carbon feedstock to produce de novo fuels and added-value compounds. The conversion of CO2into formate offers key advantages for carbon recycling, and formate dehydrogenase (FDH) enzymes are at the centre of intense research, due to the “green” advantages the bioconversion can offer, namely substrate and product selectivity and specificity, in reactions run at ambient temperature and pressure and neutral pH. In this chapter, we describe the remarkable recent progress towards efficient and selective FDH-catalysed CO2reduction to formate. We focus on the enzymes, discussing their structure and mechanism of action. Selected promising studies and successful proof of concepts of FDH-dependent CO2reduction to formate and beyond are discussed, to highlight the power of FDHs and the challenges this CO2bioconversion still faces.