White sugar is not only a seasoning in the kitchen, but also an important strategic material for maintaining national economy and people’s livelihood. For centuries, its production has been highly dependent on the cultivation of sugarcane and sugar beets, limited by land, water sources, and climate. However, a recent breakthrough study by the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is bringing about subversive changes in this traditional pattern. For the first time, an in vitro biotransformation system was constructed, successfully converting methanol – a “liquid sunlight” that can be efficiently synthesized from carbon dioxide – into the familiar sucrose, opening up a new technological path for safe and carbon neutral sugar industry under extreme conditions.
First-ever sucrose from methanol: Verified production of white sugar with high purity.
Conversion yield ~86%: Efficient carbon uptake in sugar form
Production rate ≈0.67 g/L/h: A major leap — over 10× higher than prior artificial methods
Polysaccharide synthesis: System also produced starch (amylose/amylopectin) under milder conditions than previous protocols
Modular flexibility: Same setup yielded other oligo‑/polysaccharides: cellobiose, fructose, cellooligosaccharides
The Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology has developed a groundbreaking method to convert methanol into white sugar (sucrose) without relying on traditional agricultural practices.
Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). They used what’s known as in vitro biotransformation (ivBT), which is a method that builds useful molecules outside of living organisms using enzymes.
“In vitro biotransformation (ivBT) has emerged as a highly promising platform for sustainable biomanufacturing,”
Decoupling from agriculture: Sucrose is typically produced via sugarcane or sugar beet cultivation—land- and water-intensive processes. TIIB’s method circumvents these constraints.
Carbon cycle innovation: Methanol can be derived from industrial CO₂ emissions (via hydrogenation), positioning this process as a potential carbon-negative route to food
Broad applications: Beyond sucrose, their platform can yield fructose, starch, amylose, and other complex carbohydrates used across food, pharmaceuticals, and materials sectors
This innovative biotransformation system utilizes enzymes to transform methanol, which can be derived from industrial waste or captured CO₂, into complex sugars like sucrose, starch, and other carbohydrates such as fructose and amylose. The process achieves an impressive 86% conversion efficiency, marking a significant advancement in sustainable biomanufacturing and addressing environmental challenges by converting captured carbon dioxide into food.
Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology
It’s a groundbreaking method to convert methanol into white sugar—commonly known as sucrose—without using farmland or crops. This method could one day help turn captured carbon dioxide into food.
In vitro biotransformation (ivBT) builds molecules outside of living cells using cascades of enzymes and chemical catalysts
Module C1 → C3 → C6 cascade:
- C1: Methanol → formaldehyde/other intermediates
- C3: Short-chain precursors → triose sugars
- C6: Triose → hexose sugars (glucose, fructose) and dehydrated to sucrose/storage polysaccharides
Enzyme engineering:
- Enzymes were modified for higher activity and substrate specificity.
- Designed to increase catalytic efficiency and direct pathway flux toward desired sugar products.
Energy efficiency:
- Pathway optimized to require low temperatures and minimal external energy, thereby emulating but bypassing photosynthesis
Significance & Prospects
- Food security: China imports ~5 Mt of sugar per annum against ~15 Mt consumption. This method could alleviate dependency on agriculture and tackle climate-related crop risks.
- Carbon utilization: Integrates with CO₂ capture + methanol synthesis to form a closed-loop, carbon-leveraged biosynthesis method.
- Industrial viability hurdles:
- Enzyme cost/stability: Must optimize cost-effective mass production and robustness.
- Scale-up engineering: Reactor configurations, downstream purification, catalyst recycling need refinement.
- Energy sourcing: To be truly sustainable, the energy input must come from low-carbon sources.
- Potential applications: Adaptable for producing custom sugars — with tailored structures for medical, nutritional, material, or cosmetic use.
TIIB’s methanol-to-sugar achievement marks a pioneering step toward crop-independent food manufacturing, leveraging CO₂-derived feedstock and biocatalysis. While still at experimental scale, the combination of modular enzymatic cascades, high conversion efficiency, and production of diverse sugars is uniquely promising. With further scale-up and process optimizations, this technology could redefine sustainable food production — turning industrial emissions into edible sweetness.