Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Metabolites by Clostridium acetobutylicum KCTC1037 Cultivated with Electrochemical Reducing Power

In this research, metabolic fixation of CO2 by growing cells of C. acetobutylicum cultivated with electrochemical reducing power was tested on the basis of the metabolites production and genes expression. In cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical oxidation and reduction reaction of neutral red (NR) immobilized in intact cells of C. acetobutylicum was stationarily repeated like the soluble one in the condition without CO2 but the electrochemical reduction reaction was selectively increased by addition of CO2. In electrochemical bioreactor, the modified graphite felt cathode with NR (NR-cathode) induced C. acetobutylicum to generate acetate, propionate, and butyrate from CO2 in defined medium. When H2 and CO2 were used as an electron donor and an electron acceptor, respectively, C. acetobutylicum also produced the same metabolites in a defined medium. C. acetobutylicum was not grown in the defined medium without substituted electron donors (H2 or electrochemical reducing power). C. acetobutylicum cultivated with electrochemical reducing power produced more butyrate than acetate in complex medium but produced more acetate than butyrate in defined medium. The genes of encoding the enzymes catalyzing acetyl-CoA in C. acetobuylicum electrochemically cultivated in defined medium than conventionally cultivated in complex medium. These results are a clue that C. acetobutylicum may metabolically convert CO2 to metabolites and produce free energy from the electrochemical reducing power.