On the path to generate electricity from wastewater through genetic engineering of Escherichia coli
Open Access
- 1 January 2024
- journal article
- news
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Synthetic Biology
- Vol. 9 (1) , ysae002
Abstract
Developing sustainable production schemes by recycling industrial waste streams can avoid the pollution of traditional methods and reduce our dependency on fossil fuel. To achieve this, scientists have engineered microorganisms to convert waste, such as whey from the cheese industry, cellulose from agriculture, and wastewater from the brewing industry, into valuable products such as nutritional protein, nutraceuticals, and biofuels ( 1–3). But food and fuel are not the only products we can dream of making from waste: some microorganisms have the astounding natural ability to generate electricity from their metabolism. If scaled and customized, this capability could be harnessed to generate electricity from waste. However, natural electrogenic microorganisms are not easily cultivated on waste streams or genetically engineered in a laboratory setting.Keywords
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