Transforming Greenhouse Gases into Valuable Building Blocks
Funded through the Grand Challenge: Innovative Carbon Uses Round 1 in 2014, Industrial Microbes, Inc. set out to develop a novel biological process that consumes two potent greenhouse gases—methane and carbon dioxide—and converts them into high-value chemicals. The company identified dozens of chemical and fuel products that could be cost-effectively manufactured using this approach, offering a scalable solution to reduce emissions while producing commercially valuable materials. Among the co-feedstocks evaluated, methane from natural gas or biogas emerged as the most cost-effective option on both a per-energy and per-carbon basis. Other feedstocks can also be used to power carbon dioxide fixation for malate production.
Industrial Microbes successfully demonstrated a prototype fermentation process that converts methane and CO2 into malate—a four-carbon dicarboxylic acid used in plastics, coatings, fibres, and food additives. Using engineered yeast, the team built a novel enzyme pathway that co-utilizes methane as an energy source and CO2 as a carbon input. Bench-scale fermentation achieved promising yields, with carbon fixation efficiency estimated at 45 per cent of the theoretical maximum. The process not only reduces lifecycle emissions compared to petroleum-based malate production but also offers a cost advantage by using low-cost, abundant feedstocks. At scale, the technology has the potential to displace fossil-derived chemicals and sequester carbon, with each tonne of malate capable of capturing up to 0.33 tonnes of CO2.
Scaling Biomanufacturing for Carbon-Negative Chemical Production
To advance the platform, Industrial Microbes focused on optimizing fermentation conditions to increase malate titers and improve carbon fixation efficiency. The team refined the metabolic pathway in engineered yeast to enhance flux through the carbon-fixing enzyme pyruvate carboxylase, and explored isotopic labelling techniques to more precisely quantify CO2 incorporation. Plans were developed to validate the process at pilot scale, with the goal of demonstrating commercial viability. In Alberta, the company sought two development partners—one to supply concentrated CO2 emissions and another with fermentation infrastructure capable of producing malate or its derivatives. With a robust intellectual property portfolio, low-cost feedstocks, and a growing demand for sustainable chemical building blocks, Industrial Microbes was well-positioned to scale its technology and support Alberta’s clean-tech economy.
What’s next?
While scale-up has not yet occurred in Alberta, Industrial Microbes has continued to have success elsewhere. ERA funding enabled them to raise seed funding with additional partners. Recently, the company received $5M from the U.S. Department of Energy to collaborate with a U.S. national laboratory to further advance their fermentation technology.