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Recovery of electric energy from formate by using a recombinant strain of Escherichia coli

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Abstract

Recombinant Escherichia coli cells were applied for the recovery of electric energy from formate. Initially, the fdh gene, which encodes formate dehydrogenase (FDH) of Mycobacterium vaccae, was introduced into E. coli cells to allow efficient degradation of formate. The constructed microbial fuel cell (MFC) with E. coli BW25113 cells carrying fdh gene showed appreciable generation of current density in the presence of formate as a substrate. Current density and polarization curves revealed that the performance of MFC under examined conditions was limited by the electron transfer from bulk liquid to the electrode surface; accordingly, agitation resulted in an increase in the current density and achieved a coulombic efficiency of 21.7 % on the basis of formate consumed. Thus, gene recombination enables E. coli cells to utilize formate as a fuel for MFC.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by Kansai Research Foundation for Technology Promotion. This study was also founded by the Sumitomo Foundation. We thank Dr. Kurihara of Kyoto University for kindly providing the pFDHADH plasmid.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Chemical Engineering, Department of Materials Engineering Science, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan

    Yoshihiro Ojima, Teruyoshi Kawata, Nahoko Matsuo, Yosuke Nishinoue & Masahito Taya

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  1. Yoshihiro Ojima
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  2. Teruyoshi Kawata
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  3. Nahoko Matsuo
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  4. Yosuke Nishinoue
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  5. Masahito Taya
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Correspondence to Yoshihiro Ojima.

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Ojima, Y., Kawata, T., Matsuo, N. et al. Recovery of electric energy from formate by using a recombinant strain of Escherichia coli . Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 37, 2005–2008 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-014-1179-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-014-1179-4

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