Ammonia recovery from waste streams: Energy efficiency and performance of microbial electrochemical system and electrochemical system

IF 4.8 2区化学 Q1 BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Bioelectrochemistry Pub Date : 2025-05-19 DOI:10.1016/j.bioelechem.2025.109007

Dileep Kumar Yeruva, Irini Angelidaki

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Abstract

Nutrient recovery from waste streams, particularly digestate from anaerobic digestion, represents a promising strategy for sustainable waste management and circular economy practices. This study evaluated the performance of electrochemical (ES) and Microbial electrochemical systems (MES) for ammonia recovery from digestate under varying voltages. Energy consumption, and natural pH increase in catholyte were investigated for increased recovery efficiency. The results demonstrate that MES and ES exhibited similar recovery rates, with ammonia recovery reaching approx. 49 % at 1.2 V, while at lower energy efficiency MES outperformed ES. At ‘0’ voltage, MES achieved a baseline recovery of 31.85 %, significantly higher than ES (13.25 %), highlighting the contribution of microbial electrochemical activity in driving nutrient recovery with minimal energy input. MES exhibited remarkably lower energy consumption, requiring nine-fold less energy than ES at low applied voltages, owing to the synergistic effects of microbial activity and bioelectricity generation. Moreover, MES minimized ammonium transport losses and showed better stability in cathodic pH variations, favouring long-term operational viability. The findings in MES as a more sustainable alternative for ammonia recovery, emphasizing its potential to global carbon neutrality and operational costs in nutrient recycling processes.

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废水中氨的回收：微生物电化学系统和电化学系统的能量效率和性能

从废物流中回收营养物，特别是从厌氧消化中回收营养物，是可持续废物管理和循环经济实践的一种有前途的战略。在不同电压条件下，研究了电化学（ES）和微生物电化学（MES）系统回收消化液氨的性能。研究了能量消耗和自然pH值的增加对提高回收率的影响。结果表明，MES法和ES法回收率相近，氨回收率接近。而在较低的能效下，MES优于ES。在“0”电压下，MES的基线回收率为31.85%，显著高于ES(13.25%)，突出了微生物电化学活性在以最小能量输入推动养分回收方面的贡献。由于微生物活性和生物发电的协同效应，MES表现出显著的低能耗，在低施加电压下所需的能量比ES少9倍。此外，MES最大限度地减少了铵的运输损失，并在阴极pH变化中表现出更好的稳定性，有利于长期运行可行性。研究结果表明，MES是一种更可持续的氨回收替代方案，强调了其在全球碳中和和养分回收过程中的运营成本方面的潜力。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Bioelectrochemistry 生物-电化学

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

6.00%

发文量

238

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： An International Journal Devoted to Electrochemical Aspects of Biology and Biological Aspects of Electrochemistry Bioelectrochemistry is an international journal devoted to electrochemical principles in biology and biological aspects of electrochemistry. It publishes experimental and theoretical papers dealing with the electrochemical aspects of: • Electrified interfaces (electric double layers, adsorption, electron transfer, protein electrochemistry, basic principles of biosensors, biosensor interfaces and bio-nanosensor design and construction. • Electric and magnetic field effects (field-dependent processes, field interactions with molecules, intramolecular field effects, sensory systems for electric and magnetic fields, molecular and cellular mechanisms) • Bioenergetics and signal transduction (energy conversion, photosynthetic and visual membranes) • Biomembranes and model membranes (thermodynamics and mechanics, membrane transport, electroporation, fusion and insertion) • Electrochemical applications in medicine and biotechnology (drug delivery and gene transfer to cells and tissues, iontophoresis, skin electroporation, injury and repair). • Organization and use of arrays in-vitro and in-vivo, including as part of feedback control. • Electrochemical interrogation of biofilms as generated by microorganisms and tissue reaction associated with medical implants.