Enhanced treatment of Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) wastewater using the up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket coupled with bioelectrochemical system: Effect of electric field

Bioresour Technol. 2017 May:232:18-26. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.02.010. Epub 2017 Feb 7.

Abstract

The coupling of bioelectrochemical system (BES) with an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) was established for enhanced Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) wastewater treatment while the UASB (control group) was operated in parallel. The presence of electric field could offer system a more reductive micro-environment that lower the ORP values and maintain the appropriate pH range, resulting in the higher chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency and methane production for BES-UASB (86.8% and 2.31±0.1L/(L·d)) while those values in control group were 72.1% and 1.77±0.08L/(L·d). In addition, the coupled system could promote sludge granulation to perform a positive effect on maintaining stability of pollutants removal. The high-throughput 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing in this study further confirmed that the promoting direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) between Geobacter and Methanosarcina might be established in BES-UASB to improve the syntrophic degradation of propionate and butyrate, finally facilitated completely methane production.

Keywords: Bioelectrochemical system (BES); Direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET); Electric field; Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) wastewater; Up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB).

MeSH terms

  • Anaerobiosis
  • Bacteria / metabolism
  • Biodegradation, Environmental
  • Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis
  • Bioreactors / microbiology
  • Electricity*
  • Electrochemistry / methods*
  • Organic Chemicals / analysis
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
  • Sewage / microbiology*
  • Waste Disposal, Fluid
  • Wastewater / microbiology*

Substances

  • Organic Chemicals
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
  • Sewage
  • Waste Water