• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.618-626
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• 2016

The influence of ferric ion ($Fe^{+3}$) on bioelectrochemical anaerobic digestion for sewage sludge was explored at ambient temperature ($25^{\circ}C$). Before the addition of ferric ion, the removal of volatile solids (VS) was 65.9% and the specific methane production rate was 370 mL/L/d. After the addition of ferric ion (200 ppm) to feed sludge, the bioelectrochemical anaerobic digester was more stable in the state variables including pH, alkalinity, COD and VFAs, and the VS removal and specific methane production rate were increased to 69.8% and 396 mL/L/d, respectively. However, the methane content in biogas was slightly reduced by the addition of ferric ion, indicating that the activity of planktonic anaerobic bacteria (PAB) was more improved after the addition of ferric ion. The dominances of syntrophic bacteria (Cloacamonas) and hyrolytic bacteria (Saprospiraceae, Ottowia pentelensis) in the PAB were increased by the addition of ferric ion. The addition of ferric ion improved the performance of bioelectrochemical anaerobic digestion for sewage sludge at ambient temperature.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.53-61
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• 2018

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the most widely used process that can convert the organic fraction of waste activated sludge (WAS) into biogas. However, most researched actual methane yields of anaerobic digester (AD) on lab scale is lower than theoretical ones. Bioelectrochemical, anaerobic digester was used to increase methane yield from waste activated sludge. The influence of anaerobic digestion sludge and raw sludge mixing ratio (3:7, 5:5) on methane yield and organic matter removal efficiency were explored. As a result, when the mixing ratio of bioelectrochemical anaerobic sludge was 5:5 compared with 3:7, the highest methane yields were 294.2 mL $CH_4/L$ (0.63 times increase) and 52.5% (7.5% increase), the bioelectrochemical anaerobic digester(5:5) was more stable in the pH, t otal alkalinity and VFAs, respectively. These results showed that the increase in the mixing ratio of anaerobic digestion sludge was found to be effective for maintaining the stable performance of bioelectrochemical anaerobic digester.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.208-208
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• 2003

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.475-475
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• 2005

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.989-996
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• 2012

Nitrate contamination of water environments can create serious problems such as eutrophication of rivers. Conventional biological processes for nitrate removal by heterotrophic denitrification often need additional organic substrates as carbon sources and electron donors. We tried to accelerate biological denitrification by using bioelectrochemical reactor (BER) in which electrode works as an electron donor. Denitrification activity of 8 environmental samples from various sediments, soils, groundwaters, and sludges were tested to establish an efficient enrichment culture for BER. The established enrichment culture from a soil sample showed stable denitrification activity without any nitrite accumulation. Microbial community analysis by using PCR-DGGE method revealed that dominant denitrifiers in the enrichment culture were Pantoea sp., Cronobacter sakazakii, and Castellaniella defragrans. Denitrification rate ($0.08kg/m^3{\cdot}day$) of the enrichment culture in BER with electrode poised at -0.5 V (vs Ag/AgCl) was higher than that ($2.1{\times}10^{-2}kg/m^3{\cdot}day$) of BER without any poised potential. This results suggested that biological denitrification would be improved by supplying potential throughout electrode in BER. Further research using BER without any organic substrate addition is needed to apply this system for bioremediation of water and wastewater contaminated by nitrate.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.1607-1623
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• 2019

Sediment bioelectrochemical systems (SBESs) can be integrated into brackish aquaculture ponds for in-situ bioremediation of the pond water and sediment. Such an in-situ system offers advantages including reduced treatment cost, reusability and simple handling. In order to realize such an application potential of the SBES, in this laboratory-scale study we investigated the effect of several controllable and uncontrollable operational factors on the in-situ bioremediation performance of a tank model of a brackish aquaculture pond, into which a SBES was integrated, in comparison with a natural degradation control model. The performance was evaluated in terms of electricity generation by the SBES, Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and nitrogen removal of both the tank water and the tank sediment. Real-life conditions of the operational parameters were also experimented to understand the most close-to-practice responses of the system to their changes. Predictable effects of controllable parameters including external resistance and electrode spacing, similar to those reported previously for the BESs, were shown by the results but exceptions were observed. Accordingly, while increasing the electrode spacing reduced the current densities but generally improved COD and nitrogen removal, increasing the external resistance could result in decreased COD removal but also increased nitrogen removal and decreased current densities. However, maximum electricity generation and COD removal efficiency difference of the SBES (versus the control) could be reached with an external resistance of $100{\Omega}$, not with the lowest one of $10{\Omega}$. The effects of uncontrollable parameters such as ambient temperature, salinity and pH of the pond (tank) water were rather unpredictable. Temperatures higher than $35^{\circ}C$ seemed to have more accelaration effect on natural degradation than on bioelectrochemical processes. Changing salinity seriously changed the electricity generation but did not clearly affect the bioremediation performance of the SBES, although at 2.5% salinity the SBES displayed a significantly more efficient removal of nitrogen in the water, compared to the control. Variation of pH to practically extreme levels (5.5 and 8.8) led to increased electricity generations but poorer performances of the SBES (vs. the control) in removing COD and nitrogen. Altogether, the results suggest some distinct responses of the SBES under brackish conditions and imply that COD removal and nitrogen removal in the system are not completely linked to bioelectrochemical processes but electrochemically enriched bacteria can still perform non-bioelectrochemical COD and nitrogen removals more efficiently than natural ones. The results confirm the application potential of the SBES in brackish aquaculture bioremediation and help propose efficient practices to warrant the success of such application in real-life scenarios.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.304-311
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• 2012

Chlorinated ethylenes such as perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) are widely used as industrial solvents and degreasing agents. Because of improper handling, these highly toxic chlorinated ethylenes have been often detected from contaminated soils and groundwater. Biological PCE dechlorination activities were tested in bacterial cultures inoculated with 10 different environmental samples from sediments, sludges, soils, and groundwater. Of these, the sediment using culture (SE 2) was selected and used for establishing an efficient PCE dechlorinating enrichment culture since it showed the highest activity of dechlorination. The cathode chamber of bioelectrochemical system (BES) was inoculated with the enrichment culture and the system with a cathode polarized at -500 mV (Vs Ag/AgCl) was operated under fed-batch mode. PCE was dechlorinated to ethylene via TCE, cis-dichloroethylene, and vinyl chloride. Microbial community analysis with polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) showed that the microbial community in the enrichment culture was significantly changed during the bio-electrochemical PCE dechlorination in the BES. The communities of suspended-growth bacteria and attached-growth bacteria on the cathode surface are also quite different from each other, indicating that there were some differences in their mechanisms receiving electrons from electrode for PCE dechlorination. Further detailed research to investigate electron transfer mechanism would make the bioelctrochemical dechlorination technique greatly useful for bioremediation of soil and groundwater contaminated with chlorinated ethylenes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.1104-1116
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• 2019

In this study, we investigated the potential of using sediment bioelectrochemical systems (SBESs) for in situ treatment of the water and sediment in brackish aquaculture ponds polluted with uneaten feed. An SBES integrated into a laboratory-scale tank simulating a brackish aquaculture pond was established. This test tank and the control (not containing the SBES) were fed with shrimp feed in a scheme that mimics a situation where 50% of feed is uneaten. After the SBES was inoculated with microbial sources from actual shrimp pond sediments, electricity generation was well observed from the first experimental week, indicating successful enrichment of electrochemically active bacteria in the test tank sediment. The electricity generation became steady after 3 weeks of operation, with an average current density of $2.3mA/m^2$ anode surface and an average power density of $0.05mW/m^2$ anode surface. The SBES removed 20-30% more COD of the tank water, compared to the control. After 1 year, the SBES also reduced the amount of sediment in the tank by 40% and thus could remove approximately 40% more COD and approximately 52% more nitrogen from the sediment, compared to the control. Insignificant amounts of nitrite and nitrate were detected, suggesting complete removal of nitrogen by the system. PCR-DGGE-based analyses revealed the dominant presence of Methylophilus rhizosphaerae, Desulfatitalea tepidiphila and Thiothrix eikelboomii, which have not been found in bioelectrochemical systems before, in the bacterial community in the sediment of the SBES-containing tank. The results of this research demonstrate the potential application of SBESs in helping to reduce water pollution threats, fish and shrimp disease risks, and thus farmers' losses.

• Carbon letters
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• v.20
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• pp.76-80
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• 2016

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.80-81
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• 2008