A roadmap towards integrated catalytic systems of the future

Modern-day chemical synthesis is still mainly a linear process that focuses on the design and optimization of single catalysts and reactions. By contrast, (bio)synthesis in nature is carried out by metabolic networks that are highly integrated, self-optimizing, multi-catalyst systems operating out of thermodynamic equilibrium. This allows the continuous, self-improving, multi-step synthesis of compounds from sustainable starting materials under mild and environmentally friendly conditions. While our capabilities to build catalytic systems of similar performance have been limited so far, current developments in chemistry, material sciences and synthetic biology open new paths technologically and conceptually. In this Perspective, we develop the idea that the future of catalysis is bio-inspired integrated catalytic systems that show life-like properties and provide a roadmap towards achieving this goal along five key steps: the design of biocatalysts, their combination into complex catalytic networks, the coupling of these reaction networks to energy modules, their compartmentalization and finally, their endowment with Darwinian properties. Synthetic chemical processes often do not operate at sustainable or mild conditions—in contrast with natural complex reaction networks. This Perspective provides a roadmap for bio-inspired integrated catalytic systems for chemical manufacturing, sketching a biologically based future of industrial catalysis.