Microbial | electrochemical CO2 reduction: To integrate or not to integrate?

Microbial electrosynthesis with Clostridium ljungdahlii benefits from hydrogen electron mediation and permits a greater variety of products

“…The electrochemical reduction of CO 2 (CO 2 RR) to formate is not possible at plain graphite electrodes as used here. [45][46][47] Furthermore, formate was not generated in abiotic electrochemical cell with the same carbon cathodes when 200 mM KCl was used as the electrolyte solution (Fig. S4 †).…”

Application of gas diffusion electrodes in bioeconomy: An update

“…This concept of MES is also denominated as a primary microbial electrochemical technology (MET) and has to be distinguished from approaches using a secondary MET. Secondary MET approaches are based on abiotic electrocatalysis and indirectly connected to microbial synthesis, for example, by the electrochemical generation of feedstock (see above) (Izadi & Harnisch, 2022; Schröder et al, 2015). For MES in primary MET, the GDE design aims to allow sufficient supply of CO 2 for the microorganisms.…”

Microenvironment Engineering for the Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction Reaction

“…[95] The integration of eCO 2 RR with microbial synthesis can become economically competitive with appropriate reactors and product diversity. [96] The electrochemical co-reduction of nitrogen oxide (NO x ) and CO 2 can selectively produce urea on In(OH) 3 (Figure 8c) [88] and TeÀ Pd NCs, [97] and methylamine on CoPc-NH 2 -CNT (Figure 8d). [98] Owing to the nucleophilic attack of the energetically more favorable amine on a ketene intermediate (*C=C=O) generated by the electrochemical CO reduction reaction on commercial Cu catalysts, amides can be formed with good selectivity at an industrially relevant reaction rate (Figure 8d).…”

“…The microbes accepting reducing equivalents from electrodes can transform CO 2 into high‐value C 2+ products (Figure 8b), such as acetate, [87, 92] butyrate, [93] isobutanol and 3‐methyl‐1‐butanol, [94] and butyrate [95] . The integration of eCO 2 RR with microbial synthesis can become economically competitive with appropriate reactors and product diversity [96] . The electrochemical co‐reduction of nitrogen oxide (NO x ) and CO 2 can selectively produce urea on In(OH) 3 (Figure 8c) [88] and Te−Pd NCs, [97] and methylamine on CoPc‐NH 2 ‐CNT (Figure 8d) [98] .…”