Biomass production from electricity using ammonia as an electron carrier in a reverse microbial fuel cell.

ABSTRACT: The storage of renewable electrical energy within chemical bonds of biofuels and other chemicals is a route to decreasing petroleum usage. A critical challenge is the efficient transfer of electrons into a biological host that can covert this energy into high energy organic compounds. In this paper, we describe an approach whereby biomass is grown using energy obtained from a soluble mediator that is regenerated electrochemically. The net result is a separate-stage reverse microbial fuel cell (rMFC) that fixes CO₂ into biomass using electrical energy. We selected ammonia as a low cost, abundant, safe, and soluble redox mediator that facilitated energy transfer to biomass. Nitrosomonas europaea, a chemolithoautotroph, was used as the biocatalyst due to its inherent capability to utilize amm

SUBMITTER: Khunjar WO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3446996 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature