Biofilms for production of chemicals and energy

The twenty-first century will be the century of biology. This is not only because of breakthrough advances in molecular biology tools but also because we need to reinvent our economy based on the biological principles of energy efficiency and sustainability. Consequently, new tools for production routines must be developed to help produce platform chemicals and energy sources based on sustainable resources. In this context, biofilm-based processes have the potential to impact future production processes, because they can be carried out continuously and with robust stationary biocatalysts embedded in an extracellular matrix with different properties. We review productive biofilm systems used for heterotrophic and lithoautotrophic production and attempt to identify fundamental reasons why they may be particularly suitable as future production systems.

Subjects

bioelectrochemical systems

bioengineering

biotechnology

productive biofilms

sustainable

DDC Class

570: Life Sciences, Biology

660: Chemistry; Chemical Engineering

620: Engineering

Publication version

publishedVersion

Lizenz

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Name

annurev-chembioeng-100522-110939.pdf

Type

Main Article

Size

1.75 MB

Format

Adobe PDF

Options

Biofilms for production of chemicals and energy