China turns CO₂ into starch with new technology

January 25, 2026

Chinese scientists have engineered a groundbreaking bio-industrial process that transforms carbon dioxide (CO₂) into starch, bypassing the need for traditional agriculture and significantly reducing reliance on cropland. 

Researchers at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology have refined an enzyme-driven synthesis method that converts CO₂ directly into starch with productivity roughly ten times higher than their earlier technique. 

How the CO₂-to-starch conversion works

Instead of depending on plants to capture CO₂ through photosynthesis, this new technique uses a chemoenzymatic pathway. First, carbon dioxide is chemically converted into methanol. Then a tailored sequence of enzymatic reactions transforms the methanol into sugars, which are ultimately assembled into polymeric starch. 

This cell-free process involves around eleven steps and yields a starch product nearly identical in composition to corn-derived starch.
 
Major advantages over conventional production

Traditional industrial starch is made from crops like corn, which demands vast tracts of farmland, extensive water use, and heavy inputs of fertilizers and pesticides. In contrast, the Chinese laboratory process eliminates agricultural constraints and makes CO₂ a productive raw material instead of a waste gas. 

The research team says that if the technology can be further optimized and scaled, it could save more than 90% of cultivated land and freshwater resources compared with conventional starch production. 

Towards commercial viability

While the ten-fold improvement refers to enhancements over earlier lab work—not necessarily surpassing plant efficiency—the advance marks a significant step toward commercially viable, agriculture-independent starch manufacturing. Researchers are now focused on reducing costs and increasing yield consistency to make this carbon-utilizing process competitive with crop-based starch.