IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v15y2024i1d10.1038_s41467-024-53341-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Recovering nutrients and unblocking the cake layer of an electrochemical anaerobic membrane bioreactor

Author

Listed:
  • Yuhan Zhang

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yongbin Wang

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Zhibin Chen

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Chengzhi Hu

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Jiuhui Qu

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

The sustainable development strategy shifts water treatment from pollution removal to resource recovery. Here, an electrochemical resource-recovery anaerobic membrane bioreactor (eRAnMBR) that employed a magnesium plate and conductive membrane as dual anodes is presented and shows excellent performance in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus recovery, as well as 95% membrane anti-fouling. The Mg2+ released alters the physicochemical properties of sludge, unblocking the cake layer, and recovers ammonium and phosphate, yielding 60.64% purity and 0.08 g d−1 struvite deposited onto cathode to be separated from sludge. The enhanced direct interspecies electron transfer, along with hydrogen evolution and alkalinity increase due to the electrochemical reactions, significantly increase methane yield and purity (93.97%) of the eRAnMBR. This increased internal energy can cover the additional electricity and electrode consumption. This integrated eRAnMBR reactor boasts the benefits of short process, low maintenance, and low carbon footprint, introducing a concept for the next generation of wastewater treatment.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuhan Zhang & Yongbin Wang & Zhibin Chen & Chengzhi Hu & Jiuhui Qu, 2024. "Recovering nutrients and unblocking the cake layer of an electrochemical anaerobic membrane bioreactor," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-53341-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53341-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53341-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-024-53341-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dmitrii Bogdanov & Javier Farfan & Kristina Sadovskaia & Arman Aghahosseini & Michael Child & Ashish Gulagi & Ayobami Solomon Oyewo & Larissa Souza Noel Simas Barbosa & Christian Breyer, 2019. "Radical transformation pathway towards sustainable electricity via evolutionary steps," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Lu Lu & Jeremy S. Guest & Catherine A. Peters & Xiuping Zhu & Greg H. Rau & Zhiyong Jason Ren, 2018. "Wastewater treatment for carbon capture and utilization," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(12), pages 750-758, December.
    3. Zhetai Hu & Lanqing Li & Xiaotong Cen & Min Zheng & Shihu Hu & Xiuheng Wang & Yarong Song & Kangning Xu & Zhiguo Yuan, 2023. "Integrated urban water management by coupling iron salt production and application with biogas upgrading," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Wen-Wei Li & Han-Qing Yu & Bruce E. Rittmann, 2015. "Chemistry: Reuse water pollutants," Nature, Nature, vol. 528(7580), pages 29-31, December.
    5. Shawn E. McGlynn & Grayson L. Chadwick & Christopher P. Kempes & Victoria J. Orphan, 2015. "Single cell activity reveals direct electron transfer in methanotrophic consortia," Nature, Nature, vol. 526(7574), pages 531-535, October.
    6. Rui Wang & Kai Yang & Cindy Wong & Horacio Aguirre-Villegas & Rebecca Larson & Fikile Brushett & Mohan Qin & Song Jin, 2024. "Electrochemical ammonia recovery and co-production of chemicals from manure wastewater," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(2), pages 179-190, February.
    7. Arthur Prindle & Jintao Liu & Munehiro Asally & San Ly & Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo & Gürol M. Süel, 2015. "Ion channels enable electrical communication in bacterial communities," Nature, Nature, vol. 527(7576), pages 59-63, November.
    8. Li, Lei & Xu, Ying & Dai, Xiaohu & Dai, Lingling, 2021. "Principles and advancements in improving anaerobic digestion of organic waste via direct interspecies electron transfer," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    9. Yuan, Haiping & Zhu, Nanwen, 2016. "Progress in inhibition mechanisms and process control of intermediates and by-products in sewage sludge anaerobic digestion," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 429-438.
    10. Sun, Qie & Li, Hailong & Yan, Jinying & Liu, Longcheng & Yu, Zhixin & Yu, Xinhai, 2015. "Selection of appropriate biogas upgrading technology-a review of biogas cleaning, upgrading and utilisation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 521-532.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiang Gao & Zhichao Yang & Wen Zhang & Bingcai Pan, 2024. "Carbon redirection via tunable Fenton-like reactions under nanoconfinement toward sustainable water treatment," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Chiappero, Marco & Norouzi, Omid & Hu, Mingyu & Demichelis, Francesca & Berruti, Franco & Di Maria, Francesco & Mašek, Ondřej & Fiore, Silvia, 2020. "Review of biochar role as additive in anaerobic digestion processes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    3. Li, Lei & Liu, Haoyu & Chen, Yongdong & Yang, Donghai & Cai, Chen & Yuan, Shijie & Dai, Xiaohu, 2022. "Effect of Magnet-Fe3O4 composite structure on methane production during anaerobic sludge digestion: Establishment of direct interspecies electron transfer," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 52-60.
    4. D’ Silva, Tinku Casper & Isha, Adya & Chandra, Ram & Vijay, Virendra Kumar & Subbarao, Paruchuri Mohan V. & Kumar, Ritunesh & Chaudhary, Ved Prakash & Singh, Harjit & Khan, Abid Ali & Tyagi, Vinay Kum, 2021. "Enhancing methane production in anaerobic digestion through hydrogen assisted pathways – A state-of-the-art review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Xu, Ting & Song, Jianan & Lin, Weichen & Fu, Boya & Guo, Xingguo & Huang, Xia & Wu, Hui & Zhang, Xiaoyuan, 2021. "A freestanding carbon submicro fiber sponge as high-efficient bioelectrochemical anode for wastewater energy recovery and treatment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    6. Xiong, Yu-Tong & Zhang, Jing & Chen, You-Peng & Guo, Jin-Song & Fang, Fang & Yan, Peng, 2021. "Geographic distribution of net-zero energy wastewater treatment in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    7. Farfan, Javier & Lohrmann, Alena & Breyer, Christian, 2019. "Integration of greenhouse agriculture to the energy infrastructure as an alimentary solution," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 368-377.
    8. Kim, Sunwoo & Choi, Yechan & Park, Joungho & Adams, Derrick & Heo, Seongmin & Lee, Jay H., 2024. "Multi-period, multi-timescale stochastic optimization model for simultaneous capacity investment and energy management decisions for hybrid Micro-Grids with green hydrogen production under uncertainty," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 190(PA).
    9. Abdeshahian, Peyman & Lim, Jeng Shiun & Ho, Wai Shin & Hashim, Haslenda & Lee, Chew Tin, 2016. "Potential of biogas production from farm animal waste in Malaysia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 714-723.
    10. Oyewo, Ayobami Solomon & Solomon, A.A. & Bogdanov, Dmitrii & Aghahosseini, Arman & Mensah, Theophilus Nii Odai & Ram, Manish & Breyer, Christian, 2021. "Just transition towards defossilised energy systems for developing economies: A case study of Ethiopia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 346-365.
    11. Leyuan Zhang & Yucheng Zhang & Yang Liu & Sibo Wang & Calvin K. Lee & Yu Huang & Xiangfeng Duan, 2024. "High power density redox-mediated Shewanella microbial flow fuel cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Wang, Hui & Zeng, Shufang & Pan, Xiaoli & Liu, Lei & Chen, Yunjie & Tang, Jiawei & Luo, Feng, 2022. "Bioelectrochemically assisting anaerobic digestion enhanced methane production under low-temperature," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 1071-1083.
    13. Lane, Blake & Kinnon, Michael Mac & Shaffer, Brendan & Samuelsen, Scott, 2022. "Deployment planning tool for environmentally sensitive heavy-duty vehicles and fueling infrastructure," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    14. Bogdanov, Dmitrii & Toktarova, Alla & Breyer, Christian, 2019. "Transition towards 100% renewable power and heat supply for energy intensive economies and severe continental climate conditions: Case for Kazakhstan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Hasret Sahin & A. A. Solomon & Arman Aghahosseini & Christian Breyer, 2024. "Systemwide energy return on investment in a sustainable transition towards net zero power systems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Caldera, Upeksha & Breyer, Christian, 2020. "Strengthening the global water supply through a decarbonised global desalination sector and improved irrigation systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    17. Jing-Li Fan & Zezheng Li & Xi Huang & Kai Li & Xian Zhang & Xi Lu & Jianzhong Wu & Klaus Hubacek & Bo Shen, 2023. "A net-zero emissions strategy for China’s power sector using carbon-capture utilization and storage," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    18. Zhou, Yixuan & Su, Xianbo & Zhao, Weizhong & Wang, Lufei & Fu, Haijiao, 2023. "Enhanced coal biomethanation by microbial electrolysis and graphene in the anaerobic digestion," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(P2).
    19. Pellegrino, Sandro & Lanzini, Andrea & Leone, Pierluigi, 2017. "Greening the gas network – The need for modelling the distributed injection of alternative fuels," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 266-286.
    20. Polzin, Friedemann & Sanders, Mark & Serebriakova, Alexandra, 2021. "Finance in global transition scenarios: Mapping investments by technology into finance needs by source," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-53341-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.