Microbial Electrochemical Technologies for CO₂ Sequestration

Makarand M.Ghangrekar^a,b, Sovik Das^a, Swati Das^b

Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India.

Abstract

The concentration of atmospheric CO₂ is increasing at a frightening rate, which warrants the use of sustainable mitigation techniques to counter global warming, a repercussion of elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration. In this regard, microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) can be employed to sequester atmospheric CO₂ and concomitantly produce valuables like bioelectricity and biofuels. Production of bioenergy in the form of bioelectricity and other value-added products through the degradation of organic matter present in wastewater with concomitant CO₂ sequestration is the need of the hour to achieve environmental sustainability and promote circular bioeconomy, which mainly deals with the use of waste material as a resource for the production of valuables through biological means. The waste gas, CO₂, emitted by various industries can be used as a feedstock by METs to produce biofuels and other value-added chemicals, thus achieving circular bioeconomy. Therefore, this chapter elucidates the scope of the application of MET as a sustainable technology to sequester atmospheric CO₂ and simultaneously produce value-added by-products at an efficient engineering level and discusses the bottlenecks associated with these technologies.

Keywords: Bioelectrochemical systems, Carbon sequestration, Microbial carbon capture, Microbial electrochemical technologies, Microbial electrosynthesis, Plant microbial fuel cell.