Putting System Co‐Design at the Center of Chemo‐Biohybrid CO ₂ Valorization From Lab to Industrial Scale

ABSTRACT

Converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into value‐added chemicals requires rapid carbon fixation coupled with precise chain elongation. Although chemical catalysis efficiently reduces CO ₂ to C ₁ /C ₂ intermediates, its lack of C–C coupling selectivity can be complemented by microbial cell factories engineered via synthetic biology to synthesize complex multicarbon compounds. Although chemo‐biohybrid systems have been established as a viable route for CO ₂ valorization, current designs are still constrained by single‐discipline thinking. The resulting hybrid systems are neither fully developed nor well integrated, which creates severe kinetic, thermodynamic, and biocompatibility bottlenecks that limit overall efficiency, stability, and programmability. Unlike previous reviews that discuss the chemical and biological catalysis components as separate modules, this perspective proposes a system co‐design framework that treats chemo‐biohybrid systems as integrated wholes. It analyzes the current status to which thermocatalytic, electrocatalytic, and photocatalytic modules are integrated with biological systems, discusses the challenges facing these integrated systems, and outlines their future prospects. Finally, specific cross‐disciplinary pathways forward are outlined to bridge these disciplinary divides, aiming to accelerate the translation of chemo‐biohybrid systems from conceptual designs to scalable processes.