Microbial electrolysis cell: assembly, operation and performance evaluation

• Grant number: 16/14377-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: November 01, 2016
• End date: October 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Ernesto Rafael Gonzalez
• Grantee: Melida Del Pilar Anzola Rojas
• Supervisor: Deepak Pant
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química de São Carlos (IQSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Belgium
• Associated to the scholarship: 14/25366-0 - Using a hybrid fermentative/microbial electrolysis cell system to enhance hydrogen production from sugarcane vinasse, BP.PD

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion has been considered as an attractive method to stabilize the organic matter from wastewater, since it recovers sustainable energy, such as H2 and other products of chemical interest. However, although the theoretical stoichiometric potential is 12 mol H2 mol-1, the energy recovery is low and the yield is thermodynamically limited to 4 mol H2 per mol of glucose. In this sense, a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) that is an emerging type of bioelectrochemical system (BES), has been used to overcome such a thermodynamic limit, wherein the redox metabolism is driven by a small input energy. Therefore, since the postdoc research project proposes the application of a hybrid fermentative/MEC system, this BEPE project includes the learning about MEC: assembly and evaluation of performance. To this end, experiments will be carried out in a known MEC, using synthetic acid effluent and a varying the potential range between 0.9 to 0.2 V. (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)

ROJAS, MELIDA DEL PILAR ANZOLA; ZAIAT, MARCELO; GONZALEZ, ERNESTO RAFAEL; DE WEVER, HELEEN; PANT, DEEPAK. Enhancing the gas-liquid mass transfer during microbial electrosynthesis by the variation of CO2 flow rate. Process Biochemistry, v. 101, p. 50-58, FEB 2021. (14/25366-0, 16/14377-7)

ANZOLA ROJAS, MELIDA DEL PILAR; ZAIAT, MARCELO; GONZALEZ, ERNESTO RAFAEL; DE WEVER, HELEEN; PANT, DEEPAK. Effect of the electric supply interruption on a microbial electrosynthesis system converting inorganic carbon into acetate. Bioresource Technology, v. 266, p. 203-210, OCT 2018. (16/14377-7)

ANZOLA ROJAS, MELIDA DEL PILAR; MATEOS, RAUL; SOTRES, ANA; ZAIAT, MARCELO; GONZALEZ, ERNESTO RAFAEL; ESCAPA, ADRIAN; DE WEVER, HELEEN; PANT, DEEPAK. Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) from CO2 is resilient to fluctuations in renewable energy supply. ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT, v. 177, p. 272-279, DEC 1 2018. (16/14377-7)