Bioelectrochemical hydrogen production from urban wastewater on a pilot scale

Low Temperature Domestic Wastewater Treatment in a Microbial Electrolysis Cell with 1 m2 Anodes: Towards System Scale‐Up

“…Recovering hydrogen more efficiently from the system, may be more achievable than creating and maintaining a sterile environment in the cathode whilst submerged in wastewater. Recirculating the catholyte would decrease the retention time of the hydrogen in the cathode, limiting the potential for the hydrogen to be scavenged . Another possibility would be to design the MEC architecture (i.e., wide, shallow modules) to decrease the distance for the H 2 to travel from the site of production to capture and therefore, reduce the likelihood of diffusion out of the module.…”

Microbial electrolysis cell as an emerging versatile technology: a review on its potential application, advance and challenge

“…The laboratory results of H 2 production in MECs are satisfactory and generally attain values between 1 and 4 m 3 m −3 day −1 . These successful results from the laboratory are not consistent with the reported results for larger‐scale systems, in which current density, production rate and efficiency substantially decreased as the dimensions of the system was increased . Werner et al .…”

“…H 2 gas has great potential as an environmentally sustainable energy carrier . In addition, H 2 is considered an important alternative for reducing the world's current dependence on fossil fuels, due to the following advantageous features: (i) it is a non‐toxic and renewable source of energy; (ii) when it is generated, there is no extra emission of toxic gases in the energy generation step; (iii) it is a highly inflammable gas with high calorific value (142.9 kJ g −1 ) . Recently, an MEC successfully achieved H 2 generation from different substrates at laboratory‐scale, and was more efficient than the electrolysis of water .…”

Bioelectrochemical Systems for Energy Valorization of Waste Streams

“…Although the ability of certain bacteria to generate electrical current was first described more than 100 years ago [2], it was not until the beginning of the present century that this phenomenon started to draw real interest form scientists and engineers. During the last 15 years, the progress made in the fields of bioelectrochemistry and BES has allowed to take the leap from the laboratory to the pilot scale [3,4] so that commercial development seems to be at hand.…”

“…•d −1 ) and energy consumption rocketed. In a more recent study performed at a higher scale (130 L) it has been reported energy recoveries of up to 121% with respect to the electrical input [3]. Despite the still important challenges that MECs need to overcome [11], these figures highlight the potential of this technology for exploiting the often untapped energy Energy Systems and Environment content of WW [26].…”