Utilization of process liquids with high organic loads in bioelectrochemical systems: Organic degradation rates & current densities

Combined freezing-thawing pretreatment and microbial electrolysis cell for enhancement of highly concentrated organics degradation from dewatered sludge

“…This is likely the result of electrically driven biotransformation in MEC and is in accordance with the findings [6,19], which showed that the hydrophobic acid compounds of high aromaticity in sludge were nonbiodegraded by exoelectrogens and led to an increased dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration in the supernatant discharged from microbial fuel cell (MFC)/MEC. Previous research studies showed that different kinds of substrates including waste biomass could be digested anaerobically in the bioelectrochemical systems (BES) like MFC or MEC [13,20]. However, the complex substrate, such as DS, cannot be directly utilized by exoelectrogens to produce electric current and is usually required participation of different functional groups besides exoelectrogenic bacteria for decomposition [21][22][23].…”

“…However, the complex substrate, such as DS, cannot be directly utilized by exoelectrogens to produce electric current and is usually required participation of different functional groups besides exoelectrogenic bacteria for decomposition [21][22][23]. In fact, the exoelectrogens were able to consume almost all kinds of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) [20,24]. Other metabolites and intermediate products generated by fermentative and acetogenic bacteria may not be favorable for exoelectrogens.…”