From CO to Bioplastic - Coupling the Electrochemical CO Reduction with a Microbial Product Generation by Drop-in Electrolysis.

CO has been electrochemically reduced to the intermediate formate, which was subsequently used as sole substrate for the production of the polymer polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) by the microorganism Cupriavidus necator. Faradaic efficiencies (FE) up to 54 % have been reached with Sn-based gas-diffusion electrodes in physiological electrolyte. The formate containing electrolyte can be used directly as drop-in solution in the following biological polymer production by resting cells.