Chemical Bioengineering in Microbial Electrochemical Systems

In particular, redox chemicals (serving as electron shuttles) naturally synthesized by bacteria or exogenously added synthetic molecules have been proved to be directly involved in promoting extracellular electron transfer between the cells and the electrode. Moreover, electrode modification with conductive polymers or carbon nanomaterials showed great potential for the enhancement of nanoscale topological interactions and hence the extracellular electron transfer between the cells and the electrode.Extracellular electron transfer manipulation (a microbial process) with chemical electron shuttles or electrode modifiers can be considered as a typical application of chemical bioengineering. 

In this context, MES manipulation with chemical electron shuttles, electrode modifiers, surfactants, metal ions, cell immobilization, and quorum sensing will be summarized to illustrate chemical bioengineering in MES and will be described in this chapter. 

---