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Updated: Dec 1, 2025

Self-standing Electrochemical Set-up to Enrich Anode-respiring Bacteria On-site
Published on: July 24, 2018
Formate production from CO2 electroreduction in a salinity-gradient energy intensified microbial electrochemical
Yan Tian1, Da Li2, Guohong Liu1
1State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, China.
Abstract:
The electricity production of microbial electrochemical system can be substantially strengthened by coupling with a reverse electrodialysis stack which extracts energy from salinity gradient, therefore provides a possible way for value-added products in cathode without external energy input. Here, a microbial reverse-electrodialysis CO2 reduction cell (MRECC) was developed and successfully utilized to drive CO2-to-formate conversion on a Bi/Cu cathode. Results confirmed the optimal anodic COD load and cathodic CO2 flow rate to be 1 g NaAc L-1 and 10 mL min-1. MRECC could yielded 143.5 ± 8.1 mg L-1 of formate with total energy efficiency of 4.6 ± 0.9% and coulombic efficiency of 46.4 ± 2.4%. Increasing or decreasing anode or cathode load impaired MRECC performance from economic and environmental viabilities. MRECC provided a promising platform for simultaneous CO2 reduction and value-added chemicals production by using sustainable energy from wastewaters.
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