posted on 2017-10-04, 18:21authored byGlenn
R. Hafenstine, Alexander W. Harris, Ke Ma, Jennifer N. Cha, Andrew P. Goodwin
Ethanol is a ubiquitous fermentation
product well-tolerated by
microbes, but purification from growth media requires multiple distillations
or other energy intensive processes. Converting such metabolites to
larger, hydrophobic products would both yield higher energy products
and facilitate separation. Here, we demonstrate the conversion of
C2 ethanol to C8 2-ethylhexenal via a sequential
oxidation–aldol–hydrogenation–aldol process with
solar energy as the only required input. Photocatalysis was utilized
to drive enzymatic oxidation of ethanol, while biphasic media in conjunction
with aldol coupling and Pd assisted hydrogenation kept the oxidation
and reduction processes physically and chemically separated. Using
this process, 2-ethylhexenal was produced from ethanol in both buffer
and diluted yeast media.