Issue 3, 2020
From the journal:

Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology

Increased applied voltage in the presence of GAC enhances microbial activity and methane production during anaerobic digestion of food waste†

Moustapha Harb, ORCID logo a   Noel Ermer,bc   Christelle BouNehme Sawayaa  and  Adam L. Smith ORCID logo *b  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lebanese American University, 309 Bassil Building, Byblos, Lebanon

b Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California, 3620 South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA
E-mail: smithada@usc.edu
Fax: +213 744 1426
Tel: +213 740 0473

c Marymount High School, 10643 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Abstract

Suspended conductive materials and bioelectrochemical systems (BES) have independently been shown to improve methane production by enhancing anaerobic digestion (AD). Little is known, however, about their potential combined effect in AD systems. This study investigates a BES–AD system with and without granular activated carbon (GAC) supplementation under applied voltage ranges of 1.25 V and higher. Results indicated that the BES–AD system with GAC could achieve robust methane production (>300 mL CH4 per g COD) from food waste at up to 2.75 V, whereas the BES–AD system alone did not. Microbial analysis revealed that improved performance of the BES–AD system with GAC coincided with higher relative activity of exoelectrogenic bacteria (Geobacter) on anodic biofilms. This advantageous application of GAC also resulted in Methanospirillum emerging as a dominant contributor to methanogenic relative activity in cathodic and GAC biofilms. These observations suggest that suspended GAC can serve to enhance the already beneficial coupling of BES with AD.

Graphical abstract: Increased applied voltage in the presence of GAC enhances microbial activity and methane production during anaerobic digestion of food waste

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C9EW01000A
Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Nov 2019
Accepted
04 Jan 2020
First published
08 Jan 2020

Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2020,6, 737-746

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Increased applied voltage in the presence of GAC enhances microbial activity and methane production during anaerobic digestion of food waste

M. Harb, N. Ermer, C. BouNehme Sawaya and A. L. Smith, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2020, 6, 737 DOI: 10.1039/C9EW01000A

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