EAGER: Exploiting carbon and nitrogen compounds for energy positive wastewater treatment

Mississippi State University, Mississippi State MS

Investigators

Abstract

1632019 Gude Wastewater treatment and nutrient removal schemes are energy-intensive. This research provides an innovative solution to integrate new microbial systems to develop energy-positive wastewater treatment and desalination. A key objective of this research is to use microbes in an electrochemical cell to remove nitrogen compounds at one electrode (the cathode) and to oxidize carbon compounds at the other electrode (the anode). This EAGER project focuses on the feasibility of using bacteria as a catalyst at the cathode. If successful, the results of this project could guide the design of electrochemical cells that would simultaneously remove pollutants from wastewater, desalinate brackish water, and produce electrical energy. A wide range of encouraging advancements of various bioelectrochemical systems for water treatment have recently been reported. A major challenge is to determine the rate limiting relationships between the bioelectrochemical processes in the bioanode and biocathode biofilms. This EAGER project has the following goals: 1) Discover and establish an energy-positive synergistic relationship between bioanode and anerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) biocathode processes in microbial desalination cells; 2) Evaluate the performance of anammox bacteria in a bioelectrochemical cell and study the growth kinetics and nitrogen removal capabilities to correlate microbiological parameters with environmental factors and process performance; and 3) Provide research and education opportunities for graduate, undergraduate, and high school students from underrepresented groups and provide outreach to the broader community. The transformative aspect of this project is integrating tertiary wastewater treatment and desalination processes, coupled with concurrent electricity production inspired by bioelectrochemical principles. To overcome the major challenges for the most envisioned applications of microbial desalination cells, this research capitalizes on anammox biocathode development and integrates powerful high-throughput molecular sequencing, advanced process characterization, and electrochemical impedance tools to develop energy-positive integrated wastewater-desalination systems. This project has the potential for wider applications in reclaiming high quality effluents from municipal, agricultural and industrial wastewaters combined with desalination. This EAGER project is enriched by interdisciplinary research activities among electrochemistry, molecular biology, microbiology, environmental and chemical engineering disciplines and positively impacts K-12 students, especially motivating them toward STEM fields.