TY  - CHAP
A1  - Engel, Mareike
A1  - Thieringer, Julia
A1  - Tippkötter, Nils
T1  - Linking bioprocess engineering and electrochemistry for sustainable biofuel production
T2  - Young Researchers Symposium, YRS 2016. Proceedings
N2  - Electromicrobial engineering is an emerging, highly interdisciplinary research area linking bioprocesses with electrochemistry. In this work, microbial electrosynthesis (MES) of biobutanol is carried out during acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentations with Clostridium acetobutylicum. A constant electric potential of −600mV (vs. Ag/AgCl) with simultaneous addition of the soluble redox mediator neutral red is used in order to study the electron transfer between the working electrode and the bacterial cells. The results show an earlier initiation of solvent production for all fermentations with applied potential compared to the conventional ABE fermentation. The f inal butanol concentration can be more than doubled by the application of a negative potential combined with addition of neutral red. Moreover a higher biofilm formation on the working electrode compared to control cultivations has been observed. In contrast to previous studies, our results also indicate that direct electron transfer (DET) might be possible with C. acetobutylicum. The presented results make microbial butanol production economically attractive and therefore support the development of sustainable production processes in the chemical industry aspired by the “Centre for resource-efficient chemistry and raw material change” as well as the the project “NanoKat” working on nanostructured catalysts in Kaiserslautern.
Y1  - 2016
N1  - Young Researchers Symposium, YRS 2016, 14th - 15th April 2016, Fraunhofer-Zentrum Kaiserslautern
SP  - 49
EP  - 53
PB  - Fraunhofer Verlag
CY  - Karlsruhe
ER  -