TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of pre-fermentation and pulsed-electric-field treatment of primary sludge in microbial electrochemical cells
AU - Ki, Dongwon
AU - Parameswaran, Prathap
AU - Popat, Sudeep C.
AU - Rittmann, Bruce
AU - Torres, Cesar
N1 - Funding Information:
The funding for this work was provided by SERDP (# ER-2239 ) and NSF-CBET ( 1335884 ). We also thank Dave Rath and his staff for assistance obtaining samples at MNWWRP. Also, we thank Jared Alder to operate FP alpha unit and treat samples.
PY - 2015/5/1
Y1 - 2015/5/1
N2 - The aim of this study was to investigate the combination of two technologies - pulsed electric field (PEF) pre-treatment and semi-continuous pre-fermentation of primary sludge (PS) - to produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs) as the electron donor for microbial electrolysis cells (MECs). Pre-fermentation with a 3-day solids retention time (SRT) led to the maximum generation of VFAs, with or without pretreatment of the PS through pulsed-electric-fields (PEF). PEF treatment before fermentation enhanced the accumulation of the preferred VFA, acetate, by 2.6-fold. Correspondingly, MEC anodes fed with centrate from 3-day pre-fermentation of PEF-treated PS had a maximum current density ∼3.1 A/m2, which was 2.4-fold greater than the control pre-fermented centrate. Over the full duration of batch MEC experiments, using pre-fermented centrate led to successful performance in terms of Coulombic efficiency (95%), Coulombic recovery (80%), and COD-removal efficiency (85%).
AB - The aim of this study was to investigate the combination of two technologies - pulsed electric field (PEF) pre-treatment and semi-continuous pre-fermentation of primary sludge (PS) - to produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs) as the electron donor for microbial electrolysis cells (MECs). Pre-fermentation with a 3-day solids retention time (SRT) led to the maximum generation of VFAs, with or without pretreatment of the PS through pulsed-electric-fields (PEF). PEF treatment before fermentation enhanced the accumulation of the preferred VFA, acetate, by 2.6-fold. Correspondingly, MEC anodes fed with centrate from 3-day pre-fermentation of PEF-treated PS had a maximum current density ∼3.1 A/m2, which was 2.4-fold greater than the control pre-fermented centrate. Over the full duration of batch MEC experiments, using pre-fermented centrate led to successful performance in terms of Coulombic efficiency (95%), Coulombic recovery (80%), and COD-removal efficiency (85%).
KW - Microbial electrolysis cell
KW - Pre-fermentation
KW - Pre-treatment
KW - Two-stage anaerobic treatment
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U2 - 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.06.128
DO - 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.06.128
M3 - Article
C2 - 26159378
AN - SCOPUS:84947021292
VL - 195
SP - 83
EP - 88
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
SN - 0960-8524
ER -