Expedited Biodegradation of Organic Pollutants and Refractory Compounds Using Bio-Electrochemical Systems

Abstract

Biodegradation of xenobiotics is often considered to be a slow process. This is especially true if the xenobiotic in question is polymeric in nature, contains many chemical substituent groups or generally exhibits high level of toxicity to environmental microbiota. Due to this observed slow kinetics of degradation, removal of many xenobiotics from contaminated environments using conventional bioremediation technologies is a difficult problem. To alleviate this, alternative technologies showing improved kinetics of biodegradation are sought by the scientific community. One such promising approach is the usage of the novel technology of bio-electrochemical systems for improved degradation of xenobiotics. Due to the newness of this technology and affiliated methods, not much information about its usage for biodegradation of xenobiotics is available in literature. Therefore, this chapter aims to address that gap and bring about a comprehensive analysis on the usage of bio-electrochemical systems for rapid removal of xenobiotic contaminants from the environment.

A novel growth and isolation medium for exoelectrogenic bacteria

“…Many previous studies have utilized environmental mixed microbial consortia in their work with little or no characterization of the underlying exoelectrogenic bacterial community. Such sources of exoelectrogens forming complex communities include lake sediments, marine sediments, anaerobic digester sludge and many other mixed microbial consortia from both natural and engineered habitats (Fernando et al, 2021). Engineered habitats harbouring exoelectrogens are mainly MFCs and microbial electrolysis cells (MECs).…”