Bor-Yann Chen
National I-Lan University, Taiwan
Title: Deciphering synergistic characteristics of medicinal herbs and edible flora to stimulate electrochemically-steered biorefinery
Biography
Biography: Bor-Yann Chen
Abstract
Electron shuttle-stimulating microbial fuel cells is electrochemically promising to maximize performance of simultaneous wastewater treatment and bioproduct generation. Their prior studies revealed that bio decolorized intermediates owned capabilities as electron shuttles (ESs) to stimulate reductive decolorization and bioelectricity generation. Recent findings indicated that both antioxidant characteristics and electron-shuttling potential of chemical species were strongly associated. For medicinal herbs and edible flora, these properties are also directly proportional to contents of polyphenolics and/or flavonoids. Thus, this study quantitatively disclosed such relationships via electrochemical inspections for practicability. Moreover, the performance of bioelectricity generation using microbial fuel cells could be significantly augmented via supplementation of extracts of ES-rich medicinal herbs and edible flora. They also evaluated redox potential profiles (CV) and DPPH free radical scavenging capabilities of herbs or flora for the feasibility of bioelectrochemical applications. They also uncovered that extracts of Syzygium aromaticum, Lonicera japonica and green tea were promising ES-abundant herbs/flora for energy extraction/recycling. Due to reversible ES characteristics, wastes of medicinal herbs and edible flora were still feasible for reuse/recycling in electrochemically-steered applications to bioenergy and biorefinery.