'Electrobiorefinery' uses renewables to make fuel from biomass
A team of US and German scientists have demonstrated how intermittent renewable energy can be used efficiently to produce a drop-in biofuel. They subjected corn silage to anaerobic fermentation, creating carboxylic acids which were then electrochemically converted into energy-dense alkanes or biofuel. Excess renewable energy was used in the final electrochemical phase, and insiders say that because the first stage is much slower than the final stage, where the renewable energy is used, it accommodates the intermittent nature of the electricity supply and it could be the first step towards an electrobiorefinery integrated with renewable energy.
Production of drop-in fuels from biomass at high selectivity by combined microbial and electrochemical conversion

C. Urban, J. Xu, H. Sträuber, T. R. dos Santos Dantas, J. Mühlenberg, C. Härtig, L. T. Angenent and F. Harnisch, Energy Environ. Sci., 2017, 10, 2231 DOI: 10.1039/C7EE01303E

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