Researchers working on this project have shown that the electrochemical and microbial combination can create conversion of biomass to valuable products. For the example of corn silage and corn beer, they have produced very energy-dense alkanes with properties like diesel-fuel with high carbon and energy content.

This technology is allowing the preservation of scarce resources of fossil fuels and it will make the way toward full resource security. The main factors contributing to a sustainable energy future are the sources of carbon feedstock and electric energy. The first step is based on renewable resources in form of electrical power, such as solar energy and power of the wind, and that is what is now promoted. The second step is waste streams and renewable feedstocks as very important and valuable precursors for the research and production of fuels and various commodities. Researchers and companies are now building a bridge for both factors means connecting the conversions of electric energy – especially from local productions to commodities, carriers, and production of chemical energy. Researchers working in a consortium which is led by Dr. Falk Harnisch from the UFZ proved that this bridge is a very real option.

By using combinations of electrochemical and microbial conversions is able to lead to facilities that we could designate as a bio-electro-refinery. In this process, chemicals, power, and fuels are produced in bio-electro-refineries by using chemical integration and electrochemical conversions, researchers explained. In a research publication, a proof of concept is provided that explains how biomass can be converted into chemicals with fuel-like properties.

The research already reaches 50 percent yield when we consider the full process line and using corn beer as raw material. In this study, researchers used Corn beer as a high content biomass stream, researchers from the University of Tübingen explained, but in other studies, they will replace corn beer with real waste streams for production of the mediator carboxylate to improve carbon recovery from wastes forward. Falk Harnisch leader of this project pointed out that this research will be only a first step, he also stated that they have now shown the practicability of this process at lab scale. The goal now is to make every single step of this process better and to perform scale-up in order to make realization at a technical scale possible. Even if this specific process can’t be economically viable at this point, it will certainly be a political question is not that far future.

In each case, researchers see large potential for developing process lines to gain other products by using different kinds of feedstock when finally scientists seize the power of combined electrochemical and microbial conversions. In their summary, scientists say that there is an even bigger and more important aspect of this research. The products from this conversion can be very quickly converted to fuel with a much faster and more interchangeable electrochemical conversion. During those times when electricity is in surplus, this fuel can act as storage of electricity.