Homoacetogenic consortia from BioH2 reactors enable CO2 bioconversion in microbial electrosynthesis

Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) systems rely on the ability of microorganisms to form biofilms capable of capturing electrons directly from solid electrodes via extracellular electron transfer (EET) mechanisms. In this study, the feasibility of using acetogenic consortia derived from biohydrogen (BioH2) reactors as inoculum for MES was investigated. The consortium was obtained from the natural fermentation of sugarcane molasses in a mesophilic anaerobic reactor and subsequently applied to a single-chamber MES cell operated at -1.0 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) and 35 celcius degree.