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  • Electrobiocommodities: powering microbial production of fuels and commodity chemicals from carbon dioxide with electricity.

Electrobiocommodities: powering microbial production of fuels and commodity chemicals from carbon dioxide with electricity.

Current opinion in biotechnology (2013-03-08)
Derek R Lovley, Kelly P Nevin
ABSTRACT

Electricity can be an energy source for microbially catalyzed production of fuels and other organic commodities from carbon dioxide. These electrobiocommodities (E-BCs) can be produced directly via electrode-to-microbe electron transfer or indirectly with electrochemically generated electron donors such as H2 or formate. Producing E-BCs may be a more efficient and environmentally sustainable strategy for converting solar energy to biocommodities than approaches that rely on biological photosynthesis. A diversity of microbial physiologies could potentially be adapted for E-BC production, but to date acetogenic microorganisms are the only organisms shown to covert electrically generated low potential electrons and carbon dioxide into multi-carbon organic products with high recovery of electrons in product. Substantial research and development will be required for E-BC commercialization.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
Carbon-12C dioxide, 99.9 atom % 12C
Sigma-Aldrich
Carbon-12C dioxide, 99.99 atom % 12C
Sigma-Aldrich
Carbon dioxide, ≥99.8%