Bioelectrochemical system for the enhancement of methane production by anaerobic digestion of alkaline pretreated sludge

•Bioelectrochemical system enhanced the methane production in anaerobic digestion.•Alkaline pretreatment promoted organics dissolution in wasted activated sludge.•Methane production increased by 42% at applied voltage of 0.8 V.•Bioelectrochemical system promoted the growth of Methanosaeta and Methan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioresource technology 2020-05, Vol.304, p.123000-123000, Article 123000
Main Authors: Xu, Xi-Jun, Wang, Wan-Qiong, Chen, Chuan, Xie, Peng, Liu, Wen-Zong, Zhou, Xu, Wang, Xue-Ting, Yuan, Ye, Wang, Ai-Jie, Lee, Duu-Jong, Yuan, Yi-Xing, Ren, Nan-Qi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alkaline pretreatment
Anaerobic digestion
Anaerobiosis
Bioelectrochemical
Bioreactors
Electrolysis
Energy balance
Methane
Methane production
Sewage
Waste activated sludge
Waste Disposal, Fluid
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Summary:•Bioelectrochemical system enhanced the methane production in anaerobic digestion.•Alkaline pretreatment promoted organics dissolution in wasted activated sludge.•Methane production increased by 42% at applied voltage of 0.8 V.•Bioelectrochemical system promoted the growth of Methanosaeta and Methanobacterium.•Paraclostridium played a key role in fermentation/acetogenesis process. An increasing interest is devoted to combined microbial electrolysis cell-anaerobic digestion (MEC-AD) system which could convert waste activated sludge into biogas. In this study series tests were initially conducted to study the effect of alkaline pretreatment on AD system and the results showed that alkaline pretreatment could promote the dissolution of organic matters in the sludge and thus improve the methane production. Then, the methane production in combined MEC-AD system fed with alkaline-pretreated sludge was investigated. The results indicated that the methane productions increased by 37% and 42% when applied voltage was 0.5 V and 0.8 V. The microbial electrochemical system strongly promoted the growth of Euryarchaeota (Methanosaeta and Methanobacterium). Meanwhile, the abundance of Paraclostridium increased from 17.9% to 38.5% when applied voltage was 0.8 V, suggesting an enhanced fermentation and acetogenesis process. The results of energy balance estimation indicated that MEC-AD system at 0.5 V could achieve higher net energy output.
ISSN:0960-8524
1873-2976
DOI:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123000