Replacement of fossils resources by renewable resources is essential to achieve a sustainable growth of human society. Ultimately, energy and carbon used to produce fuels and chemicals must be sourced directly from the Sun and CO2 and synthesized biologically. The CONCEPT project holds the promise by proposing a hybrid strategy, combining both chemical and biological routes, as a hybrid concept of converting CO2 into a value-added product using renewable energy to create an artificial carbon cycle. To achieve this challenge, a unique consortium is being assembled according to the key competences of its partners from different research disciplines needed to establish a novel production basis of complex molecules (more than C1) from CO2. As no single organization or country has the capacity to successfully bring about the innovations and demonstrations intended in CONCEPT on its own, a well-balanced consortium has been arranged, with partners being complementary to each other and willing to closely cooperate in creating a research environment as envisioned in CONCEPT’s ambitious aim. At the moment, 6 legal entities independent from each other (i.e. 4 academics, 2 SMEs) and from 4 different eligible countries (i.e. France, Germany, Spain, Poland) have accepted to be part of the consortium. In the future more legal entities (2 companies, 2 research organisation) from 2 more different countries may join the consortium. Considering that CONCEPT is a pioneer project given the high-risk research due to the novelty of the concept and the huge social, environmental and political implications. Considering the highly competitive funding program in the call H2020-FNR-13-2020: “Bio-based industries leading the way in turning carbon dioxide emissions into chemicals”. The core Consortium headed by Stéphanie Heux and Claire Dumon requests help from the French Research Agency (ANR) to financially support the assembly of this European Scientific Network. In particular, this help will allow: - to strengthen and expand the consortium - to reinforce the project position - to implement actions in order to suppress or reduce identified weaknesses - to organise at three consortium meetings: one for creating the bases for an interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration and prepare the first stage submission , the second in order to strengthen the European proposal in view of stage two submission and a third to finalize the second stage proposition. The ambition is to submit a pre-proposal in January 2020 and, if accepted, a full proposal in September 2020. We are strongly convinced that the chances to succeed will be significantly increased with the MRSEI financial support. Also, the CONCEPT‘s concretisation will reinforce the French position in the bio-based manufacturing and processing domain, using biological and renewable raw materials.

Methanol is an attractive low-cost substrate for biotechnology. Although methanol-based cell factories have been established, there are still major gaps in understanding methylotrophy itself. Thus, limiting their use at industrial scale. In methylotrophic yeasts like Komagataella phaffii, the entire methanol utilization (MUT) pathway is confined in peroxisomes, which is essential for its functioning. In FUNCEMM, we aim to elucidate the meaning and importance of such spatial organization to apply it in the establishment of synthetic methylotrophy. We will first re-target the entire MUT pathway to the cytoplasm of K. phaffii to understand which MUT pathway reactions depend on peroxisomal localization. Second, artificial organelles based on bacterial microcompartments will be built to investigate whether the type of compartment is necessary for methylotrophy. Finally, we will harness this knowledge to build an artificial organelle mimicking the natural methylotrophic peroxisome to design superior synthetic methylotrophic Escherichia coli, capable of efficient use of methanol. Functionality of the MUT pathway variants will be assessed in vitro using in cell NMR analysis together with kinetic models while the engineered strains will be studied at the system level by combining multi-omics approaches with stoichiometric models. In one word, FUNCEMM proposes to apply the System & Synthetic Biology approaches to methylotrophy for industrial biotechnology. FUNCEMM brings together leading European expertise in natural & synthetic methylotrophy and biotechnology and will generate fundamental knowledge for a methanol bioeconomy.

The performance of fermentation bioreactors is strongly related to the oxygen transfer from air bubbles to microorganisms to improve their growth. The action of the bubbles helps mix the reactor and also strips out waste gases (carbon dioxide). However, accurately characterizing the gas-liquid mass transfer in such processes is still a challenging issue, mainly because of the liquid phase complexity. The aim of this project is to develop specific techniques and rigorous models to better estimate the various mechanisms that govern the mass transfer process locally. New visualization techniques are proposed to estimate the local dissolved concentrations of both gases simultaneously. A new model will enable the fermentation processes to be adapted and their energy consumption to be reduced.

Given the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the announced depletion of fresh water, the indiscriminate use of toxic chemicals and the impact of all these drifts on the future of our planet and on biodiversity, new production methods of biosourced molecules, less energy-consuming, not generating CO2 and less demanding in fresh water must be investigated to ensure a credible and sustainable transition. In line with these concepts, the EPPIC project proposes to investigate 3 different routes for polymer production starting from sugar by-products or CO2 in sea water. Enzymatic routes with multiples natural or evolved enzymes, cell-based processes involving engineered microorganisms and hybrid processes combining cell-free and cell-based systems will be developed. These innovative production routes will be evaluated using an eco-design and life cycle assessment approach to identify the most promising production routes and to assess their energy and environmental performances.

In order to comply with the national low carbon strategy (SNBC) and the energy decarbonization objectives by 2050, it is necessary to develop decarbonized energy transformations and productions, i.e. not based on fossil carbon but on renewable carbon stocks, so either biomass or gaseous carbon dioxide. The transformation of CO2, whether it is of industrial origin (smoke) or biogenic (from biogas, for example), is proving to be an important asset for the future. In this project, we propose to work on the valorization of CO2 into calcium/magnesium carbonate in the form of rocks. This transformation will be carried out by microorganisms and in particular microbial consortia. The objective is therefore to select, from environmental microbial consortia, populations of APSB (Anaerobic Phototrophic Sulfur Bacteria) and to characterize their activity in terms of yields and microbial kinetics, production of exopolymers, and this according to of different growth conditions. In a second step, the addition of calcium and magnesium will make it possible to study the potential for inducing the precipitation of carbonates, for a subsequent coupling with a sulphate-reducing activity. Finally, the study proposes to focus on the microbial pathways involved in the sulfur cycle. Indeed, in the environment (ocean, lake sediments), the sulfur cycle participates via different biological and physico-chemical reactions in the bioprecipitation of carbonate salt. In particular, sulphate-reduction leads to the alkalinization of media, and the production of bicarbonate ions from MO, a phenomenon favorable to this type of reaction. The production of reduced sulfur in the form of H2S during this reaction is a potential substrate for phototrophic sulfur bacteria (APSB). This type of coupling, between chemotrophic and phototrophic pathways, takes place in the environment within microbial mats (ocean and lake sediments). By associating two complementary teams in this collaboration, the project will make it possible to understand and qualify the mechanisms involved and the role of APSBs, and to investigate the potential of such a coupling for the capture of CO2 by the culture in a bioreactor of APSB for optimization of carbonate precipitation.