Bioelectrochemical system as an oxidising filter for soluble and particulate organic matter removal from municipal wastewater

Abstract

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Stratified microbial structure and activity within anode biofilm during electrochemically assisted brewery wastewater treatment

“…Wastewater often contains various suspended inorganic and organic particulates. It is likely that these particulates from brewery wastewater were trapped during the biofilm development (Corsino et al, 2017; Khalfbadam, Ginige, Sarukkalige, Kayaalp, & Cheng, 2016).…”

Sequential solid entrapment and in situ electrolytic alkaline hydrolysis facilitated reagent-free bioelectrochemical treatment of particulate-rich municipal wastewater

“…The first reactor (R1) was operated as an electrolytic cell facilitating both entrapment and in situ alkaline hydrolysis of the entrapped particulate solids; the second reactor (R2) was operated as a typical BES for bioanodic oxidation of soluble organic matter. Specific configurational details of the reactor and the electrode materials have been described in Khalfbadam et al (2016b). In brief, each reactor had a height of 1.5 m (internal diameter 0.1 m) and consisted of two concentric cylindrical stainless steel mesh columns, one with a diameter of 6 cm and the other one with a diameter of 4 cm.…”

“…To mimic effluent of failed WSPs, primary sedimentation tank (PST) effluent (200 mg-SCOD/L, 150 mg-SS/L) of a local municipal wastewater treatment plant was used (Khalfbadam et al, 2016b). The effluent was collected weekly and stored in a fridge (4ºC) to minimise compositional changes.…”

“…Recently, there has been an effort to develop new technologies to substitute rock filters (Khalfbadam et al, 2016b). Khalfbadam et al (2016b) proposed a filter-type bioelectrochemical system (BES) termed as "BES filter" to retain and oxidise high particulate matter and soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) effluent. The tubular, dual chamber BES prototype is composed of an outer anodic chamber that encircles an inner cathodic chamber and the two chambers are separated with a cation exchange membrane.…”

“…Such a low CE was most likely due to inefficient microbial hydrolysis of the entrapped particulate matter. Indeed, the system proposed by Khalfbadam et al (2016b) suffered from the following limitations: (1) inefficient hydrolysis of entrapped particulate matter;…”