An Escherichia coli C strain (JC85) was engineered for increased current and coulombic yield from glucose in an electrochemical cell.  JC85 is capable of anaerobic growth in the presence of 2,6-dichlorophenol-indophenol (DCPIP) using glucose or pyruvate as an electron donor.  During aerobic growth in glucose minimal media, the rate of glucose consumption was 15% higher in JC85 than in the wild type.  This increase resulted from disruption of oxidative phosphorylation by deletion of the atpFH genes.  Further modifications were made to alleviate negative control of downstream catabolic steps due to a high NADH/ NAD⁺ ratio.  The overflow metabolism to acetate caused by the atpFH deletion was eliminated.  The arcA gene was deleted to remove redox sensitive control by the ArcAB regulatory system.  In addition, a targeted mutation in lpdA, encoding dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase, was made to lower the NADH sensitivity of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex.  This mutation may also allow anaerobic a-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase activity.  To increase the rate of NADH oxidation and to further limit acetate production, ackA was replaced by the naoX gene from Streptococcus mutans.  These modifications eliminated all side products from aerobic or anaerobic (with DCPIP) growth in minimal media with glucose or pyruvate as the electron donor.