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Review Article Volume 13 Issue 3
A comprehensive review on biotechnological carbon capture and utilization using engineered microorganisms: technical foundations, reactor systems, and industrial perspectives
Motehayerian Reza, Tawil Bill
Received: June 20, 2026 | Published: July 13, 2026
Citation: Reza M, Bill T. A comprehensive review on biotechnological carbon capture and utilization using engineered microorganisms: technical foundations, reactor systems, and industrial perspectives. J Appl Biotechnol Bioeng. 2026;13(4):73-89. DOI: 10.15406/jabb.2026.13.00421
Abstract
Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is emerging as a critical technology pathway for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while producing value–added fuels, chemicals, proteins, and materials. Unlike conventional carbon capture and storage, which primarily focuses on isolating CO 2 from industrial emissions for geological storage, biotechnological CCU employs microorganisms as living catalytic platforms to convert CO2 or carbon–rich waste gases into commercially useful products. Engineered microorganisms, including acetogenic bacteria, cyanobacteria, and hydrogen–oxidizing microbes, can be modified through synthetic biology and metabolic engineering to enhance carbon fixation efficiency, product selectivity, and overall process performance. From a technical perspective, microbial CO 2 fixation relies on natural metabolic pathways such as the Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle and the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway. These pathways can be optimized or redesigned using synthetic biology approaches to improve carbon assimilation and enable targeted synthesis of fuels and commodity chemicals. In particular, acetogenic bacteria convert CO 2 and CO into Acetyl–CoA via the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway, providing a key intermediate for downstream biochemical production. Advances in systems biology, pathway engineering, and bioprocess design have significantly improved the scalability and robustness of these microbial systems, supporting their role in emerging circular carbon economies. Despite major technological advances, significant challenges related to reactor scalability, gas–liquid mass transfer, energy demand, and downstream processing continue to limit large–scale industrial deployment of microbial CCU systems. Market growth in CCU technologies is driven by global net–zero commitments, industrial decarbonization efforts, carbon pricing mechanisms, and increasing demand for sustainable fuels and materials. Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is widely recognized as a key pathway for decarbonizing hard–to–abate sectors such as aviation, cement, and steel. The global CCUS market is estimated at approximately USD 5.82 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 17.75 billion by 2030, while the CCU market alone is expected to grow from USD 3.60 billion in 2025 to USD 5.34 billion by 2031. This study proposes a comparative techno–economic framework to evaluate microbial CCU systems relative to conventional carbon capture and storage technologies. Unlike many previous reviews focused primarily on microbial metabolism or carbon fixation pathways, this study integrates biological, engineering, and techno–economic perspectives to evaluate the industrial feasibility and scalability of microbial CCU technologies. The review provides a comprehensive overview of microbial carbon fixation pathways, engineered microbial platforms, reactor systems, commercialization trends, and future technological directions for sustainable carbon biomanufacturing.
Keywords: microbial carbon capture and utilization, carbon dioxide fixation, synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, gas fermentation, microbial electrosynthesis, photobioreactors, acetogenic bacteria, cyanobacteria, microalgae, Wood–Ljungdahl pathway, Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle, carbon biorefineries, renewable biomanufacturing, techno–economic analysis
©2026 Reza, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.