Using conventional anaerobic digestion to treat refractory wastewater has several drawbacks such as long start-up period, temperature sensitivity, volatile fatty acids (VFAs) accumulation and so on. The coupling of the bioelectrochemical systems with anaerobic digestion (BES-AD) has been proposed to enhance the degradation of refractory pollutants. In this review, the mechanism of BES-AD is firstly discussed. Then, the performance of BES-AD is evaluated with respect to different types of wastewater, anaerobic reactors, electrode materials and microbial communities associated with different systems. The embedding of BES addresses the accumulation of VFA and accelerates the start-up period, thus, allows for the growth of various microbial communities in the system. Novel electrodes with high biocompatibility and large specific surface area can be fabricated by the bioelectrodes-based modification and used for synergistic reinforcement of the system by combining macroscopic effects with microscopic biological mechanisms. However, the modification of BES electrodes is deemed to be the key for further improving BES performance.

使用常规厌氧消化法处理难处理废水具有许多缺点，例如启动时间长，温度敏感性高，挥发性脂肪酸（VFA）积累等。已提出将生物电化学系统与厌氧消化（BES-AD）耦合以增强难降解污染物的降解。在这篇综述中，首先讨论了BES-AD的机制。然后，针对与不同系统关联的不同类型的废水，厌氧反应器，电极材料和微生物群落，评估了BES-AD的性能。BES的嵌入解决了VFA的积累并加速了启动阶段，因此，允许系统中各种微生物群落的生长。可以通过基于生物电极的修饰来制造具有高生物相容性和大比表面积的新型电极，并通过将宏观效应与微观生物学机制相结合来用于系统的协同增强。但是，BES电极的改性被认为是进一步提高BES性能的关键。