Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Jan 11:1:100013.
doi: 10.1016/j.ese.2020.100013. eCollection 2020 Jan.

Microbial electrochemistry for bioremediation

Xiaofei Wang  1   2 , Federico Aulenta  3 , Sebastià Puig  4 , Abraham Esteve-Núñez  5 , Yujie He  6 , Yang Mu  7 , Korneel Rabaey  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Microbial electrochemistry for bioremediation

Xiaofei Wang et al. Environ Sci Ecotechnol. .

Abstract

Lack of suitable electron donors or acceptors is in many cases the key reason for pollutants to persist in the environment. Externally supplementation of electron donors or acceptors is often difficult to control and/or involves chemical additions with limited lifespan, residue formation or other adverse side effects. Microbial electrochemistry has evolved very fast in the past years - this field relates to the study of electrochemical interactions between microorganisms and solid-state electron donors or acceptors. Current can be supplied in such so-called bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) at low voltage to provide or extract electrons in a very precise manner. A plethora of metabolisms can be linked to electrical current now, from metals reductions to denitrification and dechlorination. In this perspective, we provide an overview of the emerging applications of BES and derived technologies towards the bioremediation field and outline how this approach can be game changing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic overview of microbially-catalyzed reactions taking place at the anode and at the cathode of a microbial electrochemical systems.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Schematic overview of microbial electrochemical bioremediation methods.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
METland® unit (20m2) for treating wastewater from 50pe at Carrion de los Céspedes wastewater treatment plant (Spain).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ghafari S., Hasan M., Aroua M.K. Bio-electrochemical removal of nitrate from water and wastewater—a review. Bioresour. Technol. 2008;99:3965–3974. doi: 10.1016/J.BIORTECH.2007.05.026. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pous N., Casentini B., Rossetti S., Fazi S., Puig S., Aulenta F. Anaerobic arsenite oxidation with an electrode serving as the sole electron acceptor: a novel approach to the bioremediation of arsenic-polluted groundwater. J. Hazard Mater. 2015;283:617–622. doi: 10.1016/J.JHAZMAT.2014.10.014. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Abbas S.Z., Rafatullah M., Ismail N., Syakir M.I. A review on sediment microbial fuel cells as a new source of sustainable energy and heavy metal remediation: mechanisms and future prospective. Int. J. Energy Res. 2017;41:1242–1264. doi: 10.1002/er.3706. - DOI
    1. Gregory K.B., Lovley D.R. Remediation and recovery of uranium from contaminated subsurface environments with electrodes. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2005;39:8943–8947. doi: 10.1021/ES050457E. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Daghio M., Espinoza Tofalos A., Leoni B., Cristiani P., Papacchini M., Jalilnejad E., Bestetti G., Franzetti A. Bioelectrochemical BTEX removal at different voltages: assessment of the degradation and characterization of the microbial communities. J. Hazard Mater. 2018;341:120–127. doi: 10.1016/J.JHAZMAT.2017.07.054. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources