Accelerated decolorization of azo dye Congo red in a combined bioanode–biocathode bioelectrochemical system with modified electrodes deployment

• Published in: Bioresource technology 2014-01, Vol.151, p.332-339
• Main Authors: Kong, Fanying, Wang, Aijie, Cheng, Haoyi, Liang, Bin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Azo; Azo dye Congo red (CR); Bioanode; Biocathode; Biodegradation, Environmental; Bioelectric Energy Sources; Bioelectrochemical system (BES); Biological and medical sciences; Bioreactors; Chambers; Chromium; Color; Coloring Agents - chemistry; Congo Red - chemistry; Decoloring; Decolorization efficiency (DE); Dyes; Electricity; Electrochemical analysis; Electrochemical Techniques - methods; Electrodes; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Horizontal; Kinetics
• ISSN: 0960-8524; 1873-2976
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2013.10.027

•CR decolorization was accelerated with combined bioanode–biocathode BES.•The biocathode played an important role in accelerating CR decolorization.•Three electrodes deployments were compared based on startup, DE and EIS analysis.•The surrounding mode was the best, followed by vertical and horizontal ones.•The possible mechanism for the combined bioanode–biocathode was discussed. In this study, BES with bioanode and biocathode was applied to decolorize an azo dye Congo red (CR). Results showed that the Congo red decolorization efficiency (CR-DE) within 23h in a combined bioanode–biocathode single chamber BES was 98.3±1.3%, significantly higher than that of mixed solution in a dual chamber BES (67.2±3.5%) (P