FURI | Spring 2023

Engineering Escherichia coli for Sustainable Monoethanolamine Production

Industrial emissions contribute greatly to the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. The development of new technologies to limit CO2 release is therefore a top priority for researchers. Monoethanolamine (MEA) is an organic compound that can be used to capture CO2 via chemical absorption in a process known as amine gas scrubbing. MEA does this by binding with the CO2 to form a compound called carbamate. Bacteria can be engineered to produce MEA from its precursor molecule serine. In this project, a series of genetic modifications have been introduced into E. coli to identify the most efficient MEA-producing strain.