Microbial Carbonic Anhydrases in Biomimetic Carbon Sequestration for Mitigating Global Warming: Prospects and Perspectives

Abstract

All the leading cities in the world are slowly becoming inhospitable for human life with global warming playing havoc with the living conditions. Biomineralization of carbon dioxide using carbonic anhydrase (CA) is one of the most economical methods for mitigating global warming. The burning of fossil fuels results in the emission of large quantities of flue gas. The temperature of flue gas is quite high. Alkaline conditions are necessary for CaCO3 precipitation in the mineralization process. In order to use CAs for biomimetic carbon sequestration, thermo-alkali-stable CAs are, therefore, essential. CAs must be stable in the presence of various flue gas contaminants too. The extreme environments on earth harbor a variety of polyextremophilic microbes that are rich sources of thermo-alkali-stable CAs. CAs are the fastest among the known enzymes, which are of six basic types with no apparent sequence homology, thus represent an elegant example of convergent evolution. The current review focuses on the utility of thermo-alkali-stable CAs in biomineralization based strategies. A variety of roles that CAs play in various living organisms, the use of CA inhibitors as drug targets and strategies for overproduction of CAs to meet the demand are also briefly discussed.

Kinetic Study of CO2 Hydration by Small-Molecule Catalysts with A Second Coordination Sphere that Mimic the Effect of the Thr-199 Residue of Carbonic Anhydrase

“…The biomimetic technology is a breakthrough, and it is a new concept rather than being an extension of the existing technology. In particular, mineral carbonation using CA is being studied at length for its utilization in the biomineralization of CO 2 in flue gas, and it has already been undertaken to demonstrate the feasibility of the process in some pilot-scale studies [14][15][16].…”

Potential for Heightened Sulfur-Metabolic Capacity in Coastal Subtropical Microalgae

“…However, nutrient deprivation and climate change threaten coastal environments in arid, subtropical regions like the UAE (Almahasheer et al., 2017). These sensitive areas have the potential to be highly active carbon sinks that could help offset atmospheric carbon discharge (Bose and Satyanarayana, 2017, Ezcurra et al., 2016, Seneviratne, 2003); however, before this study, little was known about their microbial primary producer constituents, particularly their genomic makeup in contrast to their temperate zone counterparts.…”

Cropping With Slag to Address Soil, Environment, and Food Security

“…The use of slag fertilizer instead of agricultural lime (limestone) to increase soil pH would eliminate the dissolution of lime as an important source of agricultural CO 2 emissions. It is well recognized that the enzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA) participates in silicate weathering and carbonate formation and thus plays an important role in the biomemetic CO 2 sequestration (Bose and Satyanarayana, 2017). Bio-inoculation of bacteria possessing CA activity in slag fertilized agricultural systems could accelerate silicate weathering and enhance CO 2 sequestration.…”