Enzymatic synthesis of L-lactic acid from carbon dioxide and ethanol with an inherent cofactor regeneration cycle

Efficient conversion of carbon dioxide is of great interests to today's endeavors in controlling greenhouse gas emission. A multienzyme catalytic system that uses carbon dioxide and ethanol to produce L-lactate was demonstrated in this work, thereby providing a novel reaction route to convert bio-based ethanol to an important building block for synthesis biodegradable polymers. The synthetic route has a unique internal cofactor regeneration cycle, eliminating the need of additional chemical or energy for cofactor regeneration. Lactate was successfully synthesized with 41% of ethanol converted in a batch reaction, while a turnover number of 2.2 day⁻¹ was reached for cofactor regeneration in a reaction with continuous feeding of ethanol. A kinetic model developed based on reaction kinetic parameters determined separately for each reaction step predicted well the reaction rates and yields of the multienzyme reaction system.