Experiments with biogeobatteries in sediments with biogenic methane

• Grant number: 15/22941-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: May 01, 2016
• End date: December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geophysics
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Alberto Mendonça
• Grantee: Carlos Alberto Mendonça
• Host Investigator: Rory Doherty
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland

Abstract

Natural biogeobatteries and methane producing mechanisms in wetlands and contaminated areas are usually studied as separate topics in Biogeophysics. Biogeobatteries are understood as processes with long-range electron transfer from lower anoxic levels until near surface vadose zone; methanogenesis as terminal processes that decompose organic matter in places lacking electron acceptors to sustain more energetic biogeochemical processes. The accumulated experience on this subject suggests these processes can be competitive or even excluding. For example, few places with methane production show strong geophysical signals (spontaneous potential) characteristic of developed biogeobatteries. The present project aims to explore this hypothesis (that biogeobattery and methanogenesis are competing processes) by means of laboratory and field experiments with biogeobatteries. A complementary issue is verifying if biogeobattery systems are able to modify the composition of the microbial communities at their anodes, a necessary condition to redirect a background biogeochemical process away methanogenesis. The results of this study will provide guidelines to infer biogeochemical processes from remote geophysical data and outline remediation procedures preventing methane generation and release of this powerful greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. This study will be part of the REMEDIATE project (http://questor.qub.ac.uk/REMEDIATE/), based at the QUB - Queen's University Belfast. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

KIRMIZAKIS, PANAGIOTIS; DOHERTY, RORY; MENDONCA, CARLOS A.; COSTEIRA, RICARDO; ALLEN, CHRIS C. R.; OFTERDINGER, ULRICH S.; KULAKOV, LEONID. Enhancement of gasworks groundwater remediation by coupling a bio-electrochemical and activated carbon system. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, v. 26, n. 10, p. 9981-9991, APR 2019. (15/22941-7)

MCANALLEN, LAURA; DOHERTY, RORY; DONOHUE, SHANE; KIRMIZAKIS, PANAGIOTIS; MENDONCA, CARLOS. Combined use of geophysical and geochemicalmethods to assess areas of active, degrading and restored blanket bog. Science of The Total Environment, v. 621, p. 762-771, APR 15 2018. (15/22941-7)