Microbial Electrochemical Technologies: Sustainable Solutions for Addressing Environmental Challenges.

Addressing global challenges of waste management demands innovative approaches to turn biowaste into valuable resources. This chapter explores the potential of microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) as an alternative opportunity for biowaste valorisation and resource recovery due to their potential to address limitations associated with traditional methods. METs leverage microbial-driven oxidation and reduction reactions, enabling the conversion of different feedstocks into energy or value-added products.

Selective butyric acid production from CO and its upgrade to butanol in microbial electrosynthesis cells.

Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) is a promising carbon utilization technology, but the low-value products (i.e., acetate or methane) and the high electric power demand hinder its industrial adoption.

Boosting ethanol production rates from carbon dioxide in MES cells under optimal solventogenic conditions.

Microbial Electrosynthesis (MES) has been widely applied for acetic acid (HA) production from CO and electricity. Ethanol (EtOH) has a higher market value than HA, and wide application in industry and as a biofuel. However, it has only been obtained sporadically and at low concentrations, probably due to sub-optimal operating conditions.

Thermodynamic approach to foresee experimental CO reduction to organic compounds.

Anaerobic gas fermentation is a promising approach to transform carbon dioxide (CO) into chemical building blocks. However, the main operational conditions to enhance the process and its selectivity are still unknown. The main objective of this study was to trigger chain elongation from a joint perspective of thermodynamic and experimental assessment.