title: Two stage bioethanol refining with multi litre stacked microbial fuel cell and microbial electrolysis cell.
abstract: Ethanol, electricity, hydrogen and methane were produced in a two stage bioethanol refinery setup based on a 10L microbial fuel cell (MFC) and a 33L microbial electrolysis cell (MEC). The MFC was a triple stack for ethanol and electricity co-generation. The stack configuration produced more ethanol with faster glucose consumption the higher the stack potential. Under electrolytic conditions ethanol productivity outperformed standard conditions and reached 96.3% of the theoretically best case. At lower external loads currents and working potentials oscillated in a self-synchronized manner over all three MFC units in the stack. In the second refining stage, fermentation waste was converted into methane, using the scale up MEC stack. The bioelectric methanisation reached 91% efficiency at room temperature with an applied voltage of 1.5V using nickel cathodes. The two stage bioethanol refining process employing bioelectrochemical reactors produces more energy vectors than is possible with today's ethanol distilleries.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Life Technologies, HES-SO Valais, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland Valais, Route du Rawyl 64, 1950 Sion, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sugnaux
authors.affiliation: Institute of Life Technologies, HES-SO Valais, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland Valais, Route du Rawyl 64, 1950 Sion, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Happe
authors.affiliation: Systems Engineering, HES-SO Valais, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Route du Rawyl 47, 1950 Sion, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christian Pierre
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Cachelin
authors.affiliation: Systèmes Informatiques Embarqués, Haute École Arc, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Rue de la Serre 7, 2610 St-Imier, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gloriod
authors.affiliation: Systèmes Informatiques Embarqués, Haute École Arc, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Rue de la Serre 7, 2610 St-Imier, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Gérald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Huguenin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Life Technologies, HES-SO Valais, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland Valais, Route du Rawyl 64, 1950 Sion, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Maxime
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blatter
authors.affiliation: Institute of Life Technologies, HES-SO Valais, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland Valais, Route du Rawyl 64, 1950 Sion, Switzerland. Electronic address: Fabian.Fischer@hevs.ch.
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D056804:Biofuels; D004572:Electrolysis; D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D000431:Ethanol
keywords: Biorefinery; Electricity; Ethanol; Methane; Microbial electrolysis cell; Microbial fuel cell; Yeast