Developing biofilm electrofermentation from a laboratory curiosity to a viable biotechnology

Electrofermentation (EF) is a relatively new technology that uses redox interactions between microbial biofilms and polarized electrodes to increase productivity in bioprocesses. EF offers three key advantages over conventional fermentation: a) control over the redox conditions within the biofilm; b) tunability of the yield and chemical properties of the main fermentation product(s); and c) lower operation cost due to the lack of aeration. While initial EF studies reported mostly marginal increases in productivity, recent works have shown that strain selection and genetic design lead to large productivity improvements and potentially to novel fermentation products. This review emphasizes the significance of integrating gene editing tools (e.g., CRISPR-based) with EF and proposes a scalable pipeline for EF applications, from laboratory testing to pilot-scale bioreactors. It also offers practical guidelines for practitioners in the fields of bioelectrochemistry and bioprocess engineering to design more effective EF processes.