近期，丹麦奥胡斯大学团队、丹麦技术大学团队与哈尔滨工业大学团队在 Sustainable Horizons 联合发表展望文章，主题为可再生能源驱动微生物电化学走向碳中和。
本文的合作作者为丹麦奥胡斯大学王博、Robin Bonné 博士，丹麦技术大学张翼峰教授，哈尔滨工业大学（深圳）王爱杰教授和刘文宗教授。
原文链接：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.horiz.2022.100031
- 研究背景 -
化石燃料的大量使用以及全球气候变化的极端性影响，迫使人类开始追寻减少和转化温室气体来开发可利用能源的可持续发展途径，最终实现碳中和社会。
作为典型的生物无机混合技术，微生物-电极相互作用的微生物电化学系统包含了（电）微生物学、电化学和材料科学，在废物（水）处理和资源回收中发挥着越来越重要的作用，被认为是生态友好和生物来源的碳中和催化技术。
然而，微生物电化学涉及的电化学反应，需要额外的外部电压来克服热力学障碍。尽管当阳极发生有机物的生物氧化时施加的电压远低于电解水过程所需的电压（1.8–2.0 V），但当能量输入依赖传统的外部电力网时，仍然不被认为是碳中性技术，这也决定了生物电化学转化过程的经济性和可持续性。因此，未来利用可再生能源产生的电力确保基本的氧化还原当量具有重要意义。
在这项工作中，研究总结了已经证明或正待证明的可驱动微生物电化学的可再生能源方式，比如微生物燃料电池产电、盐度梯度差产电和太阳能产电，其次是利用废弃热能、摩擦纳米发电机（机械能量收集器）等未充分利用的可再生能源产电，最后以电活性微生物原理作为突破角度，为这一新兴碳中和技术展望了未来的研究方向。
Fig 1. 可再生能源替代传统电能驱动微生物电化学技术
- 总结与展望 -
微生物在全球碳、氮、磷循环中发挥着重要作用。因此，自然过程对于环境问题的长期解决方案至关重要，例如从废物（水）流中回收资源、可持续能源生产和污染物修复。这些生物转化的一个重要挑战是以必要的速度和效率开发它们，以创建一个既可持续又稳定的系统。微生物电化学中的电活性微生物在发电和增值产品生产中起着关键作用。
目前很多国家致力于在 2050 年实现碳中和。微生物电化学可以有效利用可再生能源产生的电力并转化为增值化学品和燃料，同时实现CO2捕获和 N2固定。然而，在该类技术的实际应用之前，必须克服可再生电力生产和运输问题，以及固定和便携式能源稳定性供给需求。
不同的可再生能源与微生物电化学技术结合可以产生新的技术形式。例如太阳能被视为满足全球能源需求的最理想选择之一，太阳能电转化和利用可以为微生物电化学系统提供动力，以生产液体或气体燃料（如H2、CH4和乙醇），但太阳能的昼夜间歇供电利用则是一种新的挑战。最近，作为一种日间/夜间间歇电源，天然太阳光首次被证明可以有效地提高废水中的沼气产量，调节细胞色素c的电子转移蛋白，以及选择性地增强或抑制微生物电化学中某些物种的活性。这些研究进一步证明了太阳能和微生物电化学之间的潜在结合。对于未来的工作，光敏太阳能电池可以直接与阳极集成以形成光生物电极，从而降低成本并解决与每个单独单元相关的技术挑战。
综上，解决电力需求有利于微生物电化学系统形成一个真正自给自足的绿色平台，但还应联合光谱学、电化学、生物无机化学、物理学、材料科学和生物学等领域专家的更多努力。
作者简介
Bo Wang is currently a qualified Ph.D. researcher at the Department of Biology, Aarhus University (Denmark), studying (Molecular) Biology. His research interest includes miniaturized bioelectrocatalysis and microbial supercapacitors for energy recovery and storage as well as microbial catalysts for producing fuels and value-added products from sunlight and carbon dioxide. Further, he also jumps into protein biochemistry to understand electron transfer mechanisms in electromicrobiology.
Robin Bonné is a Postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Biology, Aarhus University (Denmark). His main research interests are within electromicrobiology, more specifically the fundamentals of energy and electron transport in biology, microbial electrochemistry, and biodegradable electronics. Currently, he focuses on the understanding of electron transport in cable bacteria using different dry electrical and electrochemical techniques.
Associate Prof. Dr. Yifeng Zhang is an associate professor working at the Technical University of Denmark. He is recognized as an international young leader in both microbial electrochemistry and bioenergy recovery from wastes. His research has included fundamental contributions and technological advancements that have generated novel insights and defined new frontiers of research and technology development. He has supplied the field with innovative approaches to translate mechanistic understandings of molecule-scale phenomena to systems-scale impacts. His research has been well documented in over 130 SCI publications in top journals in the field, with over 5000 times citations and an h-index of 39.
Prof. Dr. Aijie Wang works at the State Key Lab of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen (China). She holds the position as the Vice-Director of the National Engineering Laboratory for the treatment of highly concentrated refractory organic wastewater. Dr. Wang focuses on theoretical and technical research on Water & Waste Pollution Control and well combined the effective integration of fundamental (interdisciplinary) with practically applicable research. She has published more than 300 SCI papers as the first author or corresponding author and authorized more than 60 invention patents, with ca. 20000 times citations and h-index of 74. She is working on recalcitrant organic compound removal which has brought substantial benefits to the national and international industries. She is also the executive director of the Expert Committee on Wastewater Recycling of the International Water Association (IWA), vice-director of the IWA Chinese Branch on anaerobic technology as well as an IWA Distinguished Fellow.
Prof. Dr. Wenzong Liu works at the State Key Lab of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen (China). He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology (China) in 2011. His research field is mainly focused on resource recovery from wastes/wastewater, including biotechnological processes for bioenergy and biochemical, bioelectrochemical processes for hydrogen and methane production, and molecular ecology analysis for functional microorganisms. Dr. Liu has published over 100 papers in this field with ca. 6000 times citations and h-index of 43. He authored 1 book and completed 4 monograph chapters on novel technologies for bioenergy recovery and bioelectrosynthesis.
单位简介
Aarhus University (Aarhus Universitet, AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Utrecht Network of European universities and is a member of the European University Association. Aarhus University was founded in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1928 and comprises five faculties in Arts, Natural Sciences, Technical Sciences, Health, and Business and Social Sciences and has a total of 27 departments. It is home to over 30 internationally recognized research centres, including 15 centres of excellence funded by the Danish National Research Foundation. Aarhus University has been ranked among the top 100 world's best universities. Times Higher Education ranks Aarhus University in the top 10 of the most beautiful universities in Europe. The university's alumni include Bjarne Stroustrup, the inventor of programming language C++; Queen Margrethe II of Denmark; Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark; and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former prime minister of Denmark and a secretary general of NATO. (*Adapted from Wikipedia).
引用格式：Wang, B., Bonné, R., Zhang, Y., Wang, A., Liu, W. 2022. Renewable energy driving microbial electrochemistry toward carbon neutral. Sustainable Horizons 4. 100031.
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