The world is waking up to the idea of a circular economy, where products and materials are continually being transformed, reused and recycled instead of being relegated to trash or other pollution. This now even includes carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that’s a big driver of extreme weather and climate change. 

A new powerhouse collaboration of academic institutions and industries, including researchers from the University of Delaware, is embarking on a bold initiative to transform manufacturing toward zero or negative emissions by converting carbon dioxide ultimately into environmentally friendly chemicals and products with help from some of the tiniest life on the planet — microorganisms. 

The Carbon Utilization Redesign for Biomanufacturing-Empowered Decarbonization (CURB) Engineering Research Center, led by Washington University in St. Louis, is funded by a five-year, $26 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The center will support convergent projects in research, education, commercialization, workforce development, and diversity and inclusion, and UD researchers will play a significant role in the effort. 

“CURB will create highly efficient chem-bio hybrid systems to convert renewable energy and carbon dioxide into chemicals, fuels and materials,” said Joshua Yuan, CURB director and chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering at WashU. “This will decarbonize U.S. manufacturing and replace a substantial amount of petrochemical products. CURB will drive a new circular carbon economy to fulfill the needs of human society while mitigating carbon emission. That is what is at stake with this center.” 

At the University of Delaware College of Engineering, where the graduate program in chemical engineering currently ranks seventh in the nation, Professors Wilfred Chen, E. Terry Papoutsakis, Kevin Solomon and Yushan Yan and their teams will help advance CURB’s research and workforce development goals, with $4.3 million of the grant coming to UD. 

“Our UD team has a track record of success in sustainability, and this new center will further expand our efforts toward achieving a carbon-neutral economy,” said Wilfred Chen, Gore Professor of Chemical Engineering and interim associate dean for research and entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering. “We will design new electrocatalysis and biological processes as part of the center’s broader goal to help U.S. manufacturing curb emissions and decrease its ecological footprint by transitioning away from petroleum-based processes and toward biomanufacturing.”