Electrosymbiosis - Electricity-driven microbial symbiosis for the production of complex CO2-neutral chemicals

Project team: Ulrika Rova (project leader), Suman Bajracharya, Paul Christakopoulos, Adolf Krige,

Partners: Kerstin Ramser, Experimental Mechanics LTU

Duration: 2018-2021

Funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR)

Today we are able to collect large amount of energy from renewable resources. Solar, wind and hydropower are considered viable alternatives to fossil fuels and play important roles in the transition to a more sustainable society. However, these energy sources are hampered by a discontinuous output of energy and for a larger expansion of these sustainable energies to be undertaken it is imperative that technologies for storing and transporting excess energy are developed. Coupling renewable electricity derived from wind-, hydro and solar power, with microbial reduction of CO2 represent a novel and potentially very efficient way of storing excess electrical energy in the form of fuel molecules and organic commodities. The reduction typically occurs in so called microbial electro synthesis (MES) cells where the biocatalyst is grown as a biofilm on the cathode accepting electrons from the electrode. The use of CO2 as a feedstock, i.e. through carbon capture and utilization (CCU), has the potential to create attractive business opportunities for the production of 3rd generation biofuels.

In ELECTROSYMBIOSIS we investigated novel bioelectrochemical routes of CO2 transformation into value-added chemicals by utilizing renewable electricity which allows for CO2 utilization via chemical syntheses as well as simultaneous electricity storage and transport.