Selective Enrichment Establishes a Stable Performing Community for Microbial Electrosynthesis of Acetate from CO2

The advent of renewable energy conversion systems exacerbates the existing issue of intermittent excess power. Microbial electrosynthesis can use this power to capture CO2 and produce multicarbon compounds as a form of energy storage. As catalysts, microbial populations can be used, provided side reactions such as methanogenesis are avoided. Here a simple but effective approach is presented based on enrichment of a robust microbial community via several culture transfers with H-2:CO2 conditions. This culture produced acetate at a concentration of 1.29 +/- 0.15 g L-1 (maximum up to 1.5 g L-1; 25 mM) from CO2 at a fixed current of -5 Am-2 in fed-batch bioelectrochemical reactors at high N-2:CO2, flow rates. Continuous supply of reducing equivalents enabled acetate production at a rate of 19 +/- 2 gm(-2)d(-1) (projected cathode area) in several independent experiments. This is a considerably high rate compared with other unmodified carbon-based cathodes. 58 +/- 5% of the electrons was recovered in acetate, whereas 30 +/- 10% of the electrons was recovered in H-2 as a secondary product. The bioproduction was most likely H-2 based; however, electrochemical, confocal microscopy, and community analyses of the cathodes suggested the possible involvement of the cathodic biofilm. Together, the enrichment approach and galvanostatic operation enabled instant start-up of the electrosynthesis process and reproducible acetate production profiles.