Successive Conditioning in Complex Artificial Wastewater Increases the Performance of Electrochemically Active Biofilms Treating Real Wastewater. Issue 12 (19th October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Riedl, Sebastian; Brown, Robert Keith; Klöckner, Sarah; Huber, Katharina J.; Bunk, Boyke; Overmann, Jörg; Schröder, Uwe
• Is Part Of: ChemElectroChem. Volume 4:Issue 12(2017)
• Page Start: 3081
• Page End: 3090
• Publication Date: 2017-10-19
• Subjects: bioelectrochemical systems -- chemical oxygen demand -- electrochemistry -- kinetics -- microbial cultivation; Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; 541.37
• DOI: 10.1002/celc.201700929
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2196-0216

Abstract

Abstract: This study focuses on improving the treatment capacity and current output of electrochemically active microorganisms (EAM) during real wastewater treatment. A multi‐carbon‐source artificial wastewater consisting of several carbon sources, which represent typical fermentation and hydrolysis products derived from the otherwise myriad wastewater constituents, was developed as a more realistic simulation thereof. An electrochemically preselected inoculum was obtained by means of re‐suspension of a well‐established EAM biofilm, which was subsequently used to inoculate sterile electrodes. Repeating this procedure yielded increasingly enriched and conditioned biofilms with improved performance. After cultivation in the complex artificial medium, highly efficient fourth generation EAM biofilms were fed real wastewater (i. e. effluent after primary settling) and outperformed those cultivated using a single substrate (i. e. acetate) in terms of current output and chemical oxygen demand (COD) degradation rates. Abstract : Squeaky clean : A multi‐carbon‐source artificial wastewater consisting of several carbon sources, which represent typical fermentation and hydrolysis products derived from the otherwise myriad wastewater constituents, was developed as a realistic wastewater simulation and was used to cultivate high‐performance electroactive biofilms.