New applications and performance of bioelectrochemical systems

Abstract

Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) are emerging technologies which use microorganisms to catalyze the reactions at the anode and/or cathode. BES research is advancing rapidly, and a whole range of applications using different electron donors and acceptors has already been developed. In this mini review, we focus on technological aspects of the expanding application of BESs. We will analyze the anode and cathode half-reactions in terms of their standard and actual potential and report the overpotentials of these half-reactions by comparing the reported potentials with their theoretical potentials. When combining anodes with cathodes in a BES, new bottlenecks and opportunities arise. For application of BESs, it is crucial to lower the internal energy losses and increase productivity at the same time. Membranes are a crucial element to obtain high efficiencies and pure products but increase the internal resistance of BESs. The comparison between production of fuels and chemicals in BESs and in present production processes should gain more attention in future BES research. By making this comparison, it will become clear if the scope of BESs can and should be further developed into the field of biorefineries.

Performance and recent improvement in microbial fuel cells for simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal: A review

“…These proved that MFCs had great potential to be applied in removing carbon and nitrogen from wastewater. However, there are also several drawbacks that block the application of MFCs: (1) the anaerobic conditions in the anode chamber inhibit the contaminant removal, which prefers aerobic conditions (Kelly and He, 2014); (2) significant pH drift occurs in the electrode-biofilm, due to the generation and consumption of protons by the oxidation of carbon and the denitrification of nitrate, respectively (Cheng et al, 2012); (3) poor efficiency of electron transfer, at both the anode and cathode (Pham et al, 2009); (4) high overpotential loss and poor electricity productivity Hamelers et al, 2010); (5) the volume of MFC reactors in most studies is limited to a small scale due to the poor electricity generation (Cheng et al, 2012;Kondaveeti and Min, 2013;Liu et al, 2005;Puig et al, 2011;Van Doan et al, 2013), so that it is crucial to solve the problem of reactor scale-up for further application of the technology.…”

Enhanced decolorization of azo dye in a small pilot-scale anaerobic baffled reactor coupled with biocatalyzed electrolysis system (ABR–BES): A design suitable for scaling-up

“…Then, azo dye reduction on the cathode would be negligible in UBER directly receiving the substrate. UBER would achieve high current density and azo dye reduction efficiency on the cathode if exoelectrogens utilized simple fatty acids and hydrogen gas fermented from complex substrate using dark fermentation or methanogenesis prior to UBER as pre-treatment (Freguia et al, 2008;Hamelers et al, 2010). Such pre-treatment also mitigate the fluctuation of azo dye wastewater quality that often occurred in industrial wastewater.…”

Lead ions removal from aqueous solution in a novel bioelectrochemical system with a stainless steel cathode

“…17 And BESs has been successfully tested for Cr 6+ , V 5+ and Cu 2+ treatment. [18][19][20] These results indicated that BESs offer a promising potential for the reductive treatment of metal pollutants as well as organics.…”