Efficient solar-to-fuels production from a hybrid microbial-water-splitting catalyst system

Renewable-fuels generation has emphasized water splitting to produce hydrogen and oxygen. For accelerated technology adoption, bridging hydrogen to liquid fuels is critical to the translation of solar-driven water splitting to current energy infrastructures. One approach to establishing this connection is to use the hydrogen from water splitting to reduce carbon dioxide to generate liquid fuels via a biocatalyst. We describe the integration of water-splitting catalysts comprised of earth-abundant components to wild-type and engineered Ralstonia eutropha to generate biomass and isopropyl alcohol, respectively. We establish the parameters for bacterial growth conditions at low overpotentials and consequently achieve overall efficiencies that are comparable to or exceed natural systems.