BIO-ELECTROCHEMICAL REDUCTION OF CARBON DIOXIDE TO FORMATE IN ENZYMATIC FUEL CELLS

摘要

Excessive emission of anthropogenic CO2 to atmosphere has been a major cause of concern in global warming. CO2 reduction to formic acid/formate, the first step in methanol or methane production, offers the possibility to convert carbon wastes into renewable biofuels. Current CO2 reduction technologies are usually plagued with high power consumption and non-selectivity by giving a mixture of products. There are few well-applied systems, especially, rarely have studies been conducted in bio-electrochemical reactors. In our study, formate dehydrogenase (FDH), an enzyme from Candida boidinii (C6FDH), demonstrated the feasibility of selectively catalyzing the bio-electrochemical reduction of CO2 to formate with a decreased over-potential in an enzymatic fuel cell (EFC).