UC Berkeley

Solar-driven bioelectrosynthesis represents a promising approach for converting abundant resources into value-added chemicals with renewable energy. Microorganisms powered by electrochemical reducing equivalents assimilate CO₂, H₂O, and N₂ building blocks. However, products from autotrophic whole-cell biocatalysts are limited. Furthermore, biocatalysts tasked with N₂ reduction are constrained by simultaneous energy-intensive autotrophy. To overcome these challenges, we designed a biohybrid coculture for tandem and tunable CO₂ and N₂ fixation to value-added products, allowing the different species to distribute bioconversion steps and reduce the individual metabolic burden. This consortium involves acetogen Sporomusa ovata, which reduces CO₂ to acetate, and diazotrophic Rhodopseudomonas palustris, which uses the acetate both to fuel N₂ fixation and for the generation of a biopolyester. We demonstrate that the coculture platform provides a robust ecosystem for continuous CO₂ and N₂ fixation, and its outputs are directed by substrate gas composition. Moreover, we show the ability to support the coculture on a high-surface area silicon nanowire cathodic platform. The biohybrid coculture achieved peak faradaic efficiencies of 100, 19.1, and 6.3% for acetate, nitrogen in biomass, and ammonia, respectively, while maintaining product tunability. Finally, we established full solar to chemical conversion driven by a photovoltaic device, resulting in solar to chemical efficiencies of 1.78, 0.51, and 0.08% for acetate, nitrogenous biomass, and ammonia, correspondingly. Ultimately, our work demonstrates the ability to employ and electrochemically manipulate bacterial communities on demand to expand the suite of CO₂ and N₂ bioelectrosynthesis products.