Abstract
Using saline electrolytes in combination with halophilic CO2-fixing lithotrophic microbial catalysts has been envisioned as a promising strategy to develop an energy-efficient microbial electrosynthesis (MES) process for CO2 utilization. Here, an enriched marine CO2-fixing lithotrophic microbial community dominated by Vibrio and Clostridium spp. was tested for MES of organic acids from CO2. At an applied Ecathode of -1V (vs Ag/AgCl) with 3.5% salinity (78 mScm-1), it produced 379±53mg/L (6.31±0.89mM) acetic acid and 187±43mg/L (4.05±0.94mM) formic acid at 2.1±0.30 and 1.35±0.31mMday-1, respectively production rates. Most electrons were recovered in acetate (68.3±3%), formate (9.6±1.2%) besides hydrogen (11±1.4%) and biomass (8.9±1.65%). Notably, the bioproduction of organic acids occurred at a high energetic efficiency (EE) of∼46% and low Ecell of 2.3V in saline conditions compared to the commonly used non-saline electrolytes (0.5-1 mScm-1) in the reported MES studies with CO2 (Ecell: >2.5V and EE: <34%).
Published Version
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