The Electrobiome: A Microbial Community Platform for the Electrosynthetic Production of Fuels & Chemicals

Microbial communities are renowned for the ability to select a niche and efficiently catalyze the degradation or synthesis of compounds.  The electrobiome refers to an electrosynthetic microbial community that is enriched at the cathode of an electrochemical cell, where electricity, carbon dioxide, and water are converted into valuable fuels and chemicals.  Discussed in this presentation will be an electrobiome that produces kg quantities of hydrogen and/or organic acids per L of cathode volume per day.  The productivity is sufficient to consider further development for hydrogen production as a fuel or chemical feedstock, organic acids as chemical precursors, or further advancement of the electrobiome for the production of liquid fuels or bioplastics.  All of these chemicals and fuels could be generated sustainably from waste carbon dioxide and a non-carbon based, renewable source of electricity.  Included in the discussion will be reactor design, productivity, and the phylogeny and metagenome of the electrobiome.