Electrometabolomic Modeling of Microbes: Applications in Fuel Cells and Environment Analysis

A formalism for simulating coupled metabolic and electrophysiological processes is presented. The resulting chemical kinetic and electrophysiological equations are solved numerically in a manner consistent with the multiscale nature of the problem and implemented as a cell simulator. Metabolic features of this simulator were adapted from Karyote, a multi-compartment biochemical cell model. We present the mathematical formalism and its computational implementation as an electrometabolomic cell simulator. Applications to Geobacter sulfurreducens in the environment and in a fuel cell are discussed.