Lignin is the largest store of renewable aromatic carbon. Due to its refractory nature, however, its chemical potential is not fully realized, rather, most lignin is treated as a waste, burned for low-value energy. Here, we propose a biorefinery where the treatment of wastewater by a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC)...
Efficient and sustainable utilization of global resources represents a grand but achievablechallenge. By leveraging biology, we can transform abundant, but recalcitrant resources like lignin
to products ranging from fuel to medicine to polymers. Efforts to do so are expansive, but
challenges remain, due in no small part to the difficulty...