Bioelectrochemical systems serve anaerobic digestion process for process monitoring and biogas ...

62 Pages·2017·2.75 MB·English

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Bioelectrochemical systems serve anaerobic digestion process for process monitoring
and biogas upgrading
Jin, Xiangdan
Publication date:
2017
Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Link back to DTU Orbit
Citation (APA):
Jin, X. (2017). Bioelectrochemical systems serve anaerobic digestion process for process monitoring and biogas
upgrading. Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

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Bioelectrochemical systems serve
anaerobic digestion process for pro-
cess monitoring and biogas upgrading

Xiangdan Jin

PhD Thesis
October 2017

Bioelectrochemical systems serve anaer-
obic digestion process for process moni-

toring and biogas upgrading

Xiangdan Jin

PhD Thesis
October 2017

DTU Environment
Department of Environmental Engineering
Technical University of Denmark
i
Bioelectrochemical systems serve anaerobic digestion process for process
monitoring and biogas upgrading

Xiangdan Jin

PhD Thesis, October 2017

The synopsis part of this thesis is available as a pdf-file for download from
the DTU research database ORBIT: http://www.orbit.dtu.dk.

Address: DTU Environment
Department of Environmental Engineering
Technical University of Denmark
Miljoevej, building 113
2800 Kgs. Lyngby
Denmark

Phone reception: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Homepage: http://www.env.dtu.dk
E-mail: [email protected]

Cover: GraphicCo
ii
Preface
This PhD thesis, entitled “Bioelectrochemical systems serve anaerobic
digestion process for process monitoring and biogas upgrading”, comprises
the research carried out at the Department of Environmental Engineering,
Technical University of Denmark from October 13, 2014 to October 14, 2017.
Professor Irini Angelidaki and Senior Researcher Yifeng Zhang were the
supervisor and co-supervisor, respectively.
The thesis is organized in two parts: the first part puts into context the
findings of the PhD project in an introductive review; the second part consists
of the papers listed below. These will be referred to in the text by their paper
number written with the Roman numerals I- III.

I Jin, X., Angelidaki, I., Zhang, Y. 2016. Microbial electrochemical
monitoring of volatile fatty acids during anaerobic digestion.
Environmental Science & Technology, 50(8), 4422-4429.

II Jin, X., Li, X., Zhao, N., Zhang, Y., Angelidaki, I. 2017. Bio-electrolytic
sensor for rapid monitoring of volatile fatty acids in anaerobic digestion
process. Water Research, 111, 74-80.

III Jin, X., Zhang, Y., Li, X., Zhao, N., Angelidaki, I. 2017. Microbial
electrolytic capture, separation and regeneration of CO for biogas
2
upgrading. Environmental Science & Technology, 51(16), 9371-9378.

In addition, the following publications, not included in this thesis, were also
concluded during this PhD study:
Li, X., Jin, X., Angelidaki, I., Zhang, Y. 2017. Efficient treatment of aniline
containing wastewater in bipolar membrane microbial electrolysis cell-
fenton system. Water Research, 119, 67-72.
Li, X., Jin, X., Zhao, N., Angelidaki, I., Zhang, Y. 2017. Novel bio-electro-
Fenton technology for azo dye wastewater treatment using microbial re-
verse-electrodialysis electrolysis cell. Bioresource Technology, 228, 322-
329.
iii
In this online version of the thesis, paper I-III are not included but can be
obtained from electronic article databases e.g. via www.orbit.dtu.dk or on
request from DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark, Miljoevej,
Building 113, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark, [email protected].

iv
Acknowledgements
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and thanks to my
supervisor Professor Irini Angelidaki and my co-supervisor Dr. Yifeng Zhang.
I would like to thank my supervisor for her continuous support of my PhD
study and related research and she is a tremendous mentor for me. The advice
she gave me on both research as well as on other aspects have been valuable.
I wish to thank Yifeng for his patience, motivation and immense knowledge.
He gave me a lot of guidance in all the time of my research, paper writing as
well as this thesis writing.
My sincere thanks also go to my teammates: Xiaohu Li, Nannan Zhao,
Shaofeng Zhou and Hao Sun, who helped me a lot in the laboratory. My
research work could not progress smoothly without their suggestions and
stimulating discussions.
I thank my fellow labmates who were working in the same lab. Those are
Xinyu Zhu, Hailin Tian, Ilaria Bassani, Panagiotis Tsapekos, Martina D’Este,
Adam Kovalszki, Enrico Mancini, Basma Omar, Davide De Francisci,
Panagiotis Kougias, Laura Treu, Ioannis Fotidis, Merlin Alvarado-Morales. I
have to say I had a great time in the bioenergy group.
Besides, many thanks to our technicians: Hector Hernan Caro Garcia, Hector
Osvaldo Ampuero Diaz, Satomi Matsuura and Sinh Hy Nguyen for their
support in experiment facility service and analytical measurements.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents and my
brother for supporting me spiritually throughout my PhD study. Special
thanks go to Changle for his support, understanding and encouragement in
my daily life.
This PhD thesis is dedicated to everyone who has helped, supported and
loved me.

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Summary
Bioelectrochemical systems (BES), which employ microbes as catalysts to
convert chemical energy stored in organic matter into sustainable electricity
and high-value chemicals, is an emerging and promising technology. BES
have broad applications including wastewater treatment, chemical production,
resource recovery and waste remediation. Recently, new concepts of
integrating BES with anaerobic digestion (AD) for process optimization have
been proposed. The purpose of this work was to optimize the AD process
using BES in two aspects: developing a new volatile fatty acid (VFA)
monitoring system which can be used as the AD process indicator, and for
improving biogas quality by removing CO .
2
In this thesis, a microbial desalination cell (MDC) was developed for
measuring VFAs concentrations. The MDC was composed of three chambers,
namely an anode, a cathode and a middle chamber. The samples were
measured in the middle chamber, which was separated from the anode by an
anion exchange membrane (AEM). Driven by concentration gradient, VFAs
in their ionized form contained in the sample, diffused through AEM to the
anode where they were microbially oxidized and produced current signals.
The effect of operating parameters such as ionic strength and external
resistance on the performance of the MDC-typed biosensor were assessed.
High ionic strength and small external resistance were advantageous for
current signal amplification. Two linear relationships between current outputs
and VFA concentrations were observed. The response time was approx. 5 h
and the detection range was 1 to 200 mM. The selectivity of the biosensor
was demonstrated since organic matter such as protein and lipids were
retained by the AEM and their interference was eliminated. The reliability
was proved by real AD effluents.
In order to reduce the construction cost and simplify the VFA biosensor, a
new configuration was developed. The number of chambers was reduced
from three to two. The new configuration was a microbial electrolysis cell
(MEC). The anode and cathode chambers were separated by an AEM and a
small additional voltage was supplied to the cell. The samples were measured
in the cathode. The effect of different parameters such as external voltage,
ionic strength and VFA composition ratio on the MEC-typed biosensor
performance was evaluated. Higher current signals were observed under
larger external voltage and higher ionic strengths. The current output was
mainly contributed by acetate which was always dominant in AD reactors.
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