Authors
Jiping Tang, Bingjie Sun, Yan Wang, Huilin Chen, Weihong Zheng, Hang Lin, Yanwei Luo, Ziye Zeng, Na Chu, Raymond Jianxiong Zeng, Ruixia Shen, Yong Jiang
Published in
Bioresource technology. Pages 136176. Oct 31, 2026. Epub Oct 31, 2026.
Abstract
High-value conversion of CO2 through staged electrochemical-biological processes remains challenging because direct electrochemical synthesis of long-chain products involves complex reaction pathways and competing reactions. Microbial chain elongation provides an alternative route for upgrading low-carbon intermediates, but suitable bridging substrates are needed to connect upstream CO2 conversion with downstream microbial metabolism. Here, we developed a staged electrochemical-biological platform using formate and ethanol as bridging substrates. A Cu-Ag gas-diffusion electrode integrated with a solid-state electrolyte reactor enabled electrolyte-free co-production of formate and ethanol from CO2. At 300 mA cm-2, the Faradaic efficiencies of formate and ethanol remained above 23 % and 17 %, respectively, over 30 h. A synthetic electrolyte-free formate-ethanol mixture was then used as a defined co-substrate for microbial upgrading. Compared with acetate-ethanol, formate-ethanol was associated with greater butyrate accumulation but lower caproate formation. Microbial community and metagenomic analyses revealed distinct community compositions and genetic potentials related to co-substrate conversion and chain-elongation functions. This study provides evidence that formate-derived carbon is incorporated during microbial chain elongation, linking CO2 electroreduction with C4-C6 carboxylic acid production and offering a potential framework for coupling electrochemical carbon conversion with microbial product upgrading.
PMID:
42966544
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Nov 2026.
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