Development of resource recovery wastewater treatment using microbial electrochemical cells

对能源安全和可持续性的日益关注促使全球努力开发高性能、高能效的废水处理解决方案。微生物电化学技术（MET）是一种新兴的厌氧废水处理生物技术，可为真正可持续的废水处理，特别是有机废水处理提供经济有效的选择。这些技术可以生产有用的增值化学品，并在不影响能源效率的情况下从污水中回收营养物质。 尽管有上述好处，但METs尚未成功应用于废水处理系统。主要挑战包括：（1）电流密度低，对电子转移动力学的理解肤浅，这直接损害了MET处理废水和生产增值产品的能力;（2）过于简单的单电池配置，这不适合扩大规模;（3）有限的有机物和营养物控制，这导致出水水质差，限制了废水处理的实际实施。拟议的研究将解决这些关键瓶颈，以帮助推进能源中性或积极的废水处理战略。 拟议的研究计划的总体目标是促进可持续的废水处理技术的发展，使用MET。申请人将追求三个关键目标，以推进这一目标：（1）建立从底物到阳极的综合电子转移模型，并包括细胞外电子转移，（2）开发预处理发酵技术，该技术可以将复杂的废水有机物转化为乙酸盐，以提高后续基于MET的处理中的电流密度，以及（3）开发综合生物工艺（高级发酵罐+ MET），以提高出水质量和营养物回收，这将为可持续水处理创造高效和经济的解决方案。 拟议的资源回收废水处理技术具有强大的潜力，带来显着的经济和环境效益，加拿大，通过大幅降低市政运营成本，免除附加费的行业，回收的营养物质的再利用。预计对EET的深入了解以及通过这项研究实现的预处理发酵和组合生物工艺的创新工程将使加拿大处于MET和资源回收废水处理生物技术关键领域的研究前沿，这也将激励和培训下一代HQP，他们将为可持续废水管理的创新做出贡献。

Rising concerns about energy security and sustainability have spurred global efforts to develop high-performance, energy-efficient wastewater treatment solutions. Microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) are an emerging anaerobic wastewater treatment biotechnology that may offer an economically powerful option for truly sustainable wastewater treatment, particularly for organic wastewater. These technologies can produce useful, value-added chemicals and recover nutrients from effluent without compromising energy efficiency. Despite the above benefits, METs have yet to be successfully deployed in wastewater treatment systems. Main challenges include (1) low current density and a superficial understanding of electron transfer kinetics, which directly undermine MET’s ability to treat wastewater and produce value-added products; (2) over-simplistic, single-cell configuration, which is inappropriate for scale-up; (3) limited organic and nutrient control, which causes poor effluent quality and limits practical implementation for wastewater treatment. The proposed research will address these critical bottlenecks to help advance an energy-neutral or -positive wastewater treatment strategy. The overarching goal of the proposed research program is to advance development of sustainable wastewater treatment technologies using METs. The applicant will pursue three key objectives to advance this goal: (1) build a comprehensive electron transfer model that spans from substrate to the anode, and includes extracellular electron transfer, (2) develop pre-treatment fermentation techniques that can transform complex wastewater organics into acetate to improve current density in subsequent MET-based processing, and (3) develop an integrated bioprocess (advanced fermenter + MET) to enhance effluent quality and nutrient recovery, which will create a highly effective and economical solution for sustainable water treatment. The proposed resource recovery wastewater treatment technology has strong potential to bring significant economic and environmental benefits to Canada, through substantial reductions in municipal operating costs, waive of surcharge fees for industry, and reuse of recovered nutrients. It is expected deep understanding of EET and innovative engineering of pre-treatment fermentation and combined bioprocesses achieved through this research will place Canada at the forefront of research in key areas of METs and resource-recovering wastewater treatment biotechnologies, which will also inspire and train the next generation of HQP who will contribute to innovation in sustainable wastewater management.