Microbial Electrochemical Systems can be setup in soil either for the harvesting of energy from microbial metabolism (sediment microbial fuel cell, SMFC) or for the bioremediation of polluted environments (Microbial Electroremediating Cell, MERC). However, the precieved need for this technology to be located in flooded environments, to assure the ionic contact between anode and cathode, has limited its implementation in standard soils.

This work describes a new configuration that overcomes this limitation by integrating an out-of-soil cathodic chamber with a ceramic barrier so a closed circuit system can be achieved without flooding the soil. On top of harvesting energy under this new configuration we have outperformed natural bioremediation by restoring an atrazine polluted soil as proof of concept. Our results showed that >98% of the initially available atrazine was efficiency removed after 2 weeks with this new MERC configuration, in contrast with a mere 58% removal obtained under natural attenuation. Moreover, a set of toxicological tests using green algae, Salmonella typhimurium and Sorghum saccharatum strongly confirmed a marked lack of toxicity in the soil after the bioelectrochemical treatment in contrast with the natural attenuation that was unable to fulfill the non-toxic level.

可以在土壤中建立微生物电化学系统，以从微生物代谢中收集能量（沉淀微生物燃料电池，SMFC）或对污染环境进行生物修复（微生物电修复细胞，MERC）。然而，为了确保阳极和阴极之间的离子接触，这种技术必须位于水淹环境中，这已限制了其在标准土壤中的应用。

这项工作描述了一种新配置，通过将土壤外阴极腔室与陶瓷屏障集成在一起，从而克服了这一限制，因此可以实现闭路系统而不会淹没土壤。在这种新配置下收集能量的基础上，我们通过恢复阿特拉津污染的土壤作为概念证明，表现优于自然生物修复。我们的结果表明，使用这种新的MERC配置，在2周后有效去除了98％以上的最初可用的r去津，而在自然衰减下仅去除了58％。此外，还使用绿藻，鼠伤寒沙门氏菌和糖精高粱进行了一组毒理学测试 强烈证实了生物电化学处理后土壤中明显缺乏毒性，而自然衰减不能满足无毒水平。