Electricity-driven ammonia oxidation and acetate production in microbial electrosynthesis systems

Highlights

• MES was constructed for simultaneous ammonia removal and acetate production.

• Energy consumption was different for total nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen removal.

• Energy consumption for acetate production was about 0.04 kWh/g.

• Nitrate accumulation explained the difference of energy consumption.

• Transport of ammonia and acetate across the membrane deteriorated the performance.

Abstract

Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) is an emerging technology for producing chemicals, and coupling MES to anodic waste oxidation can simultaneously increase the competitiveness and allow additional functions to be explored. In this study, MES was used for the simultaneous removal of ammonia from synthetic urine and production of acetate from CO₂. Using graphite anode, 83.2%±5.3% ammonia removal and 28.4%±9.9% total nitrogen removal was achieved, with an energy consumption of 1.32 kWh/g N for total nitrogen removal, 0.45 kWh/g N for ammonia nitrogen removal, and 0.044 kWh/g for acetate production. Using boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode, 70.9%±12.1% ammonia removal and 51.5%±11.8% total nitrogen removal was obtained, with an energy consumption of 0.84 kWh/g N for total nitrogen removal, 0.61 kWh/g N for ammonia nitrogen removal, and 0.043 kWh/g for acetate production. A difference in nitrate accumulation explained the difference of total nitrogen removal efficiencies. Transport of ammonia and acetate across the membrane deteriorated the performance of MES. These results are important for the development of novel electricity-driven technologies for chemical production and pollution removal.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Biocathode / Carbon dioxide / Electrochemical oxidation / Graphite anode / Boron-doped diamond

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51908131), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (No. 2020J01563), and the Special Fund of State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (No. 19K05ESPCT), and the CAS Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology & Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KLCAS-2019-1).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1476-5 and is accessible for authorized users.

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