CX-035516: University of Wisconsin, Madison - Building Plant Chemical Platforms for Efficient Aromatic Production Directly from CO2

Funding will support the project team's small-scale research and development of plant-based "living refineries" technology that uses sunlight energy and converts atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into aromatic compounds for use in industrial products, including plastics, fuels, resins, and semiconductor materials. Specifically, the project team will (1) produce plants in labs with proteins that generate first phase components of aromatic compounds, (2) grow, test, and validate selected plants to meet genetic and production metrics, (3) introduce enzymes to plants for aromatic production, (4) grow, test, and validate next stage plants to meet genetic and production metrics, (5) identify plant lines for final modifications, (6) grow plant lines with full expression of aromatic production, test and validate production metrics, and (7) finalize plant lines and explore next stage development.