Comparison of different biocathode start-up strategies and evaluation of their microbial community

Abstract

As most of you know, carbon capture and utilisation is one of the major challenges in Environmental engineering nowadays. Several novel ideas have been proposed to generate chemicals from CO2, one of them is microbial electrosynthesis. CO2 electroreduction opens a wide viriety of posibilities to produce chemicals such as carboxylic acids or combustible gases. This goal can be achieved in a biocathode using a mixed or pure culture biofilm. This technology is currently in the first stages of development showing promising results. This research was possible thanks to the financial support of the ‘Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad’ project ref: CTQ2015-68925-R, cofinanced by FEDER funds. Ana Sotres thanks the regional ‘Junta de Castilla y León’ for the postdoctoral contract associated with project ref: LE060U16, cofinanced by FEDER funds