Performance and bacterial enrichment of bioelectrochemical systems during methane and acetate production

Xafenias, Nikolaos; Mapelli, Valeria

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.05.038

Cited by 80 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The biofilm acts as a catalyst for the metabolism of unrefined substrates (organic matter), during which electrons, protons, and other organic compounds are released. An understanding of the anodic reaction mechanism, together with an improvement of the electron transfer and the biofilm growth needs to be addressed to achieve an increased power density [20][21][22][23][24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon-Based Air-Breathing Cathodes for Microbial Fuel Cells

et al. 2016

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Abstract:A comparison between different carbon-based gas-diffusion air-breathing cathodes for microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is presented in this work. A micro-porous layer (MPL) based on carbon black (CB) and an activated carbon (AC) layer were used as catalysts and applied on different supporting materials, including carbon cloth (CC), carbon felt (CF), and stainless steel (SS) forming cathode electrodes for MFCs treating urine. Rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) analyses were done on CB and AC to: (i) understand the kinetics of the carbonaceous catalysts; (ii) evaluate the hydrogen peroxide production; and (iii) estimate the electron transfer. CB and AC were then used to fabricate electrodes. Half-cell electrochemical analysis, as well as MFCs continuous power performance, have been monitored. Generally, the current generated was higher from the MFCs with AC electrodes compared to the MPL electrodes, showing an increase between 34% and 61% in power with the AC layer comparing to the MPL. When the MPL was used, the supporting material showed a slight effect in the power performance, being that the CF is more powerful than the CC and the SS. These differences also agree with the electrochemical analysis performed. However, the different supporting materials showed a bigger effect in the power density when the AC layer was used, being the SS the most efficient, with a power generation of 65.6 mW·m −2 , followed by the CC (54 mW·m −2 ) and the CF (44 mW·m −2 ).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon-Based Air-Breathing Cathodes for Microbial Fuel Cells

et al. 2016

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“…MES remains a nascent concept with only few studies that have demonstrated the process in laboratory scale using either pure cultures [8][9][10][11] or mixed microbial consortia [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]73].…”

Section: Microbial Electrosynthesis From Co2 To Organics-a Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both direct electron transfer and H 2 -mediated electron transfer from the cathode to the acetate-producers were speculated [16]. Few other studies have also reported biocathodic concomitant production of acetate, methane and hydrogen by mixed microbial consortia on graphite or carbon felt [17,19,73]. Jiang et al (2012) showed that the metabolic pathway and end-products spectrum was dependent on the applied cathode potentials [73].…”

Section: Microbial Electrosynthesis From Co2 To Organics-a Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Methane has been reported to be the dominant end-product when methanogenesis activity was not suppressed in CO 2 -fed cathode compartment [15,19,73]. The…”

Section: Case Study Nº1: Co 2 Conversion To Acetate As End-productmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Microbial electrosynthesis remains a nascent concept with only few studies that have demonstrated the process in laboratory scale using either pure cultures [8][9][10][11] or mixed microbial consortia [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Use of mixed microbial consortia is attractive as they can be readily generated in the required quantities, are more tolerant to environmental fluctuations [20] and thus far have showed higher MES production rates than pure cultures over long term operation [14][15][16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microbial electrosynthesis from carbon dioxide: performance enhancement and elucidation of mechanisms

Jourdin¹

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Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) of organics from carbon dioxide has been recently put forward as an attractive technology for the renewable production of valuable multi-carbon reduced end-products and as a promising CO 2 transformation strategy. MES is a biocathode-driven process that relies on the conversion of electrical energy into high energy-density chemicals. However, MES remains a nascent concept and there is still limited knowledge on many aspects.It is still unclear whether autotrophic microbial biocathode biofilms are able to selfregenerate under purely cathodic conditions without any external electron or organic carbon sources. Here we report on the successful development and long-term operation of an autotrophic biocathode whereby an electroactive biofilm was able to grow and sustain itself with CO 2 and the cathode as sole carbon and electron source, respectively, with H 2 as sole product. From a small inoculum of 15 mg COD (in 250 mL), the bioelectrochemical system operating at -0.5 V vs. SHE enabled an estimated biofilm growth of 300 mg as COD over a period of 276 days.A critical aspect is that reported performances of bioelectrosynthesis of organics are still insufficient for scaling MES to practical applications. Selective microbial consortia and biocathode material development are of paramount importance towards performance enhancement. A novel biocompatible, highly conductive three-dimensional cathode was manufactured by direct growth of flexible multiwalled carbon nanotubes on reticulated vitreous carbon (NanoWeb-RVC) by chemical vapour deposition (CVD). The results demonstrated that: (i) the high surface area to volume ratio of the macroporous RVC maximizes the available biofilm area while ensuring effective mass transfer to and from the biofilm, and (ii) the nanostructure enhances the bacteria-electrode interaction, biofilm development, microbial extracellular electron transfer, and acetate bioproduction rate.However, for scale-up beyond certain sizes, there are some limitations with the CVD technique. We harnessed the throwing power of electrophoretic deposition technique (EPD), suitable for industrial scale production, to form multi-walled CNT coatings onto RVC to generate a new hierarchical porous structure, hereafter called EPD-3D. A very effective mixed microbial consortium was successfully enriched and transferred to EPD-3D reactors and demonstrated drastic performance enhancement reaching biocathode current density of -102 ± 1 A m -2 and acetate production rate of 685 ± 30 g m -2 day -1 .ii An in-depth understanding on how electrons flow from the cathode to the terminal electron acceptor is still missing but crucial (e.g. for improved reactor design). High rates of acetate production by microbial electrosynthesis was shown to occur via biologically-induced hydrogen, likely through the biological synthesis of metal copper particles, with 99 ± 1% electron recovery into acetate. The acetate-producing bacteria showed the remarkable ability to consume a high H 2 flux (ca. 1.15 m ...

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Principle and Product Overview of Bioelectrosynthesis

Zhang

Wei

2020

Bioelectrosynthesis

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Performance and bacterial enrichment of bioelectrochemical systems during methane and acetate production

Cited by 80 publications

References 41 publications

Carbon-Based Air-Breathing Cathodes for Microbial Fuel Cells

Carbon-Based Air-Breathing Cathodes for Microbial Fuel Cells

Microbial electrosynthesis from carbon dioxide: performance enhancement and elucidation of mechanisms

Principle and Product Overview of Bioelectrosynthesis

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