The ins and outs of photo-assisted microbial electrochemical systems for synchronous wastewater treatment and bioenergy recovery

Genping Yi, Bo Wang, Yufa Feng, Difan Fang, Liming Yang*, Wenzong Liu, Yifeng Zhang, Penghui Shao, Spyros G. Pavlostathis, Shenglian Luo, Xubiao Luo*, Aijie Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReviewpeer-review

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Abstract

Wastewater, as the used water, carries huge energy that is frequently ignored and unexploited. Microbes, as bioelectrocatalysts in microbial electrochemical systems (MESs), can convert chemical energy stored in biodegradable matrixes from wastewater to bioelectricity and chemicals. However, due to sluggish wastewater treatment rates and bioenergy production, wider applications have been hampered. Currently, photo-assisted MESs, combined electrochemical/photochemical driving force with microbial catalysis, have emerged as a sustainable platform to enhance pollutants degradation and bioenergy recovery from wastewater with the aid of solar light, accompanied by reasonable energy investment and minimal environmental disturbance. Nevertheless, the development of photo-assisted MESs is still in its infancy. This work broadly concludes present photo-assisted MESs wastewater treatment technologies and their overall limitations in terms of performance and the future advancements that will be necessary to make them more widely applicable. Herein, crucial factors influencing the performance of these photo-assisted MESs, such as the reactor types (bioanode-photocathode, photoanode-biocathode, photomicrobial electrode, and photosynthetic bacteria/algae MESs), the bandgap of semiconductor and microbe species are discussed. Furthermore, prominent research accomplishments of photo-assisted MESs with an emphasis on eliminating contaminants (initial concentration, removal efficiency, and removal rate) and recovering bioenergy (product types, production rate, and current density) from various wastewaters are systematically summarized. Finally, present challenges and prospects in the field of photo-assisted MESs technology are discussed, mainly including the optimization of electrode materials, screening and culture of microorganisms, scale-up of bioreactors, intermittency of solar energy, and other complications overarchingly shared with photo-assisted microbial electrochemical wastewater treatment and bioenergy recovery.
Original languageEnglish
Article number106230
JournalResources, Conservation and Recycling
Volume181
Number of pages17
ISSN0921-3449
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Keywords

  • Microbial electrochemical systems
  • Solar energy
  • Semiconductors
  • Electron transfer
  • Wastewater treatment
  • Bioenergy recovery
  • Cod, chemical oxygen demand
  • Eams, electrochemically active microorganisms
  • Eden, electrotrophic denitrification
  • Eet, extracellular electron transfer
  • H2, hydrogen
  • Mecs, microbial electrolysis cells
  • Mess, microbial electrochemical systems
  • Mfcs, microbial fuel cells
  • Mo, methyl orange
  • Nhe, normal hydrogen electrode
  • Pec, photoelectrochemical cell
  • Peden, photoelectrotrophic denitrification system
  • rGO@PPy, Reduced graphene oxide-polypyrrole

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