Solar driven CO2 fixation using non-photosynthetic microbes and Fe ions as energy carrier

我们利用深海铁氧化细菌Mariprofundus ferrooxidans的能力，将细胞内的电子提升到更高的能量状态，作为一个内置的电压多层电路。CO2固定过程的体内电化学分析显示，电池将电压增加到0.95 V，这使得能够在0.19 V的外部电压下启动电化学CO2还原与水氧化。0.19 V的值比通过CO2还原与水氧化产生有机化合物的热力学极限低一个数量级。因此，集成的生物电化学过程可以提供一种利用由几种来源（例如水力、太阳能、风能、地热能和其他）提供的极低电压电力将CO2电化学转化为有机化学品的方法。

We exploited the ability of the deep-sea Fe-oxidizing bacteria, Mariprofundus ferrooxidans, to elevate the intracellular electrons into a higher energetic state as a built-in voltage multiplayer circuit. In-vivo electrochemical analysis of CO2 fixation processes revealed that the cells multiplies the voltage to 0.95 V, which enables to initiate the electrochemical CO2 reduction coupled with water oxidation at an external voltage of 0.19 V. The value of 0.19 V is one order of magnitude lower than the thermodynamic limit for producing organic compounds via CO2 reduction coupled with water oxidation. Thus, the integrated bioelectrochemical process could provide a way to utilize extremely low-voltage-electricity supplied by several sources such as hydro, solar, wind, geothermal, and others for the electrochemical conversion of CO2 to organic chemicals.