Dessì, Paolo and Buenaño, Claribel and Martínez-Sosa, Santiago and Mills, Simon and Trego, Anna and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Pant, Deepak and Puig, Sebastià and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Farràs, Pau (2023) Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 16: 100261. ISSN 2666-4984
AI Summary:
The study investigates the industrial adoption of microbial electrosynthesis (MES) for CO2 bio-electro recycling to acetate. The results show that moderate saline conditions (5 g L1 NaCl) can help reduce power demand while preserving acetogen activity.AI Topics:
The industrial adoption of microbial electrosynthesis (MES) is hindered by high overpotentials deriving from low electrolyte conductivity and inefficient cell designs. In this study, a mixed microbial consortium originating from an anaerobic digester operated under saline conditions (∼13 g L−1 NaCl) was adapted for acetate production from bicarbonate in galvanostatic (0.25 mA cm−2) H-type cells at 5, 10, 15, or 20 g L−1 NaCl concentration. The acetogenic communities were successfully enriched only at 5 and 10 g L−1 NaCl, revealing an inhibitory threshold of about 6 g L−1 Na+. The enriched planktonic communities were then used as inoculum for 3D printed, three-chamber cells equipped with a gas diffusion biocathode. The cells were fed with CO2 gas and operated galvanostatically (0.25 or 1.00 mA cm−2). The highest production rate of 55.4 g m−2 d−1 (0.89 g L−1 d−1), with 82.4% Coulombic efficiency, was obtained at 5 g L−1 NaCl concentration and 1 mA cm−2 applied current, achieving an average acetate production of 44.7 kg MWh−1. Scanning electron microscopy and 16S rRNA sequencing analysis confirmed the formation of a cathodic biofilm dominated by Acetobacterium sp. Finally, three 3D printed cells were hydraulically connected in series to simulate an MES stack, achieving three-fold production rates than with the single cell at 0.25 mA cm−2. This confirms that three-chamber MES cells are an efficient and scalable technology for CO2 bio-electro recycling to acetate and that moderate saline conditions (5 g L−1 NaCl) can help reduce their power demand while preserving the activity of acetogens.
Dessì, Paolo
Author
Dessì, Paolo and Buenaño, Claribel and Martínez-Sosa, Santiago and Mills, Simon and Trego, Anna and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Pant, Deepak and Puig, Sebastià and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Farràs, Pau (2023) Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 16: 100261. ISSN 2666-4984
See full publications listBuenaño, Claribel
Author
Dessì, Paolo and Buenaño, Claribel and Martínez-Sosa, Santiago and Mills, Simon and Trego, Anna and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Pant, Deepak and Puig, Sebastià and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Farràs, Pau (2023) Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 16: 100261. ISSN 2666-4984
See full publications listMartínez-Sosa, Santiago
Author
Dessì, Paolo and Buenaño, Claribel and Martínez-Sosa, Santiago and Mills, Simon and Trego, Anna and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Pant, Deepak and Puig, Sebastià and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Farràs, Pau (2023) Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 16: 100261. ISSN 2666-4984
See full publications listMills, Simon
Author
Dessì, Paolo and Buenaño, Claribel and Martínez-Sosa, Santiago and Mills, Simon and Trego, Anna and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Pant, Deepak and Puig, Sebastià and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Farràs, Pau (2023) Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 16: 100261. ISSN 2666-4984
See full publications listTrego, Anna
Author
Dessì, Paolo and Buenaño, Claribel and Martínez-Sosa, Santiago and Mills, Simon and Trego, Anna and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Pant, Deepak and Puig, Sebastià and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Farràs, Pau (2023) Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 16: 100261. ISSN 2666-4984
See full publications listIjaz, Umer
Author
Cholet, Fabien and Vignola, Marta and Quinn, Dominic and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Sloan, William T. and Smith, Cindy J. (2025) Microbial ecology of drinking water biofiltration based on 16S rRNA sequencing: a meta-analysis. Water Research, 281: 123684. ISSN 0043-1354
Saleem, Farrukh and Ameer, Aqsa and Afzal, Farhan and Usman, Muhammad and Irshad, Hamid and Sattar, Sadia and Ijaz, Umer Zeeshan and Javed, Sundus (2025) A cross-sectional survey of poultry management systems, practices and antimicrobial use in relation to disease outbreak in Pakistan. BMC Research Notes, 18: 144. ISSN 1756-0500
Badar, Ayesha and Aqueel, Rhea and Nawaz, Ali and Ijaz, Umer Zeeshan and Malik, Kauser Abdulla (2025) Microbiota transplantation for Cotton Leaf Curl Disease suppression - core microbiome and transcriptome dynamics. Communications Biology, 8 (1): 380. ISSN 2399-3642
See full publications listPant, Deepak
Author
Dessì, Paolo and Buenaño, Claribel and Martínez-Sosa, Santiago and Mills, Simon and Trego, Anna and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Pant, Deepak and Puig, Sebastià and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Farràs, Pau (2023) Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 16: 100261. ISSN 2666-4984
See full publications listPuig, Sebastià
Author
Dessì, Paolo and Buenaño, Claribel and Martínez-Sosa, Santiago and Mills, Simon and Trego, Anna and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Pant, Deepak and Puig, Sebastià and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Farràs, Pau (2023) Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 16: 100261. ISSN 2666-4984
See full publications listO'Flaherty, Vincent
Author
Trego, Anna and O'Sullivan, Sarah and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Collins, Gavin and Ijaz, Umer Zeeshan (2024) Individual methanogenic granules are whole-ecosystem replicates with reproducible responses to environmental cues. Environmental Microbiome, 19: 68. ISSN 2524-6372
Trego, Anna and Palmeiro-Sánchez, Tania and Graham, Alison and Ijaz, Umer Zeeshan and O'Flaherty, Vincent (2024) First evidence for temperature influencing the enrichment, assembly and activity of polyhydroxyalkanoate-synthesizing mixed microbial communities. Frontiers in Systems Biology, 4: 1375472. ISSN 2674-0702
Dessì, Paolo and Buenaño, Claribel and Martínez-Sosa, Santiago and Mills, Simon and Trego, Anna and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Pant, Deepak and Puig, Sebastià and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Farràs, Pau (2023) Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 16: 100261. ISSN 2666-4984
See full publications listFarràs, Pau
Author
Dessì, Paolo and Buenaño, Claribel and Martínez-Sosa, Santiago and Mills, Simon and Trego, Anna and Ijaz, Umer Z. and Pant, Deepak and Puig, Sebastià and O'Flaherty, Vincent and Farràs, Pau (2023) Microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from CO2 in three-chamber cells with gas diffusion biocathode under moderate saline conditions. Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, 16: 100261. ISSN 2666-4984
See full publications listAvailable under License Creative Commons Attribution.
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