Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Nitrate reduction with biotic and abiotic cathodes at various cell voltages in bioelectrochemical denitrification system

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Electrochemical treatment of nitrate ions was attempted using different catalysts on the cathode in bioelectrochemical denitrification systems. The carbon cathode coated by biofilm (biocathode) could remove 91 % of nitrate ions at 1.0 V, which was almost same as the Pt-coated electrode (90 %). The exchange current density of biocathode was 0.0083 A/m2, which was almost 22 times higher than with an abiotic plain carbon cathode. The formation of intermediate products in nitrate reduction varied depending on the cell voltage. At 0.5 V, a large portion of nitrate was converted to ammonia, but at more increased cell voltage (0.7 and 1 V) a high amount of nitrite ions was found with little ammonia formation in cathodic solution. The maximum nitrate removal rate was 0.204 mg NO3-N/cm2d by biocathode, while plain carbon paper showed only 0.176 mg NO3-N/cm2d. Electrochemical analysis of chronoamperometry showed a higher stable current generation for biocathode (3.1 mA) and Pt-coated cathode (2.8 mA) as compared to plain carbon (0.6 mA) at 0.7 V of poised voltage.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Chebotareva N, Nyokong T (1997) Metallophthalocyanine catalysed electroreduction of nitrate and nitrite ions in alkaline media. J Appl Electrochem 27:975–981

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Winnerberger (1982) Nitrogen, Public Health and the Environment. Ann Arbor Science Publishers, Michigan

  3. Claudio (2005) Cotton-supported heterotrophic denitrification of nitrate-rich drinking water with a sand filtration post-treatment. Water Res Com 31:229–235

  4. Szpyrkowicz L, Daniele S, Radaelli M, Specchia S (2006) Removal of NO3− from water by electrochemical reduction in different reactor configurations. Appl Catal B 66:40–50

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Park J, Yoo Y (2009) Biological nitrate removal in industrial wastewater treatment: which electron donor we can choose. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 82:415–429

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Till BA, Weathers LJ, Alvarez PJJ (1998) Fe(0)-supported autotrophic denitrification. Environ Sci Technol 32:634–639

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Liu H, Grot S, Logan BE (2005) Electrochemically assisted microbial production of hydrogen from acetate. Environ Sci Technol 39:4317–4320

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Tokash JC, Logan BE (2011) Electrochemical evaluation of molybdenum disulfide as a catalyst for hydrogen evolution in microbial electrolysis cells. Int J Hydrogen Energy 36:9439–9445

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Virdis B, Read ST, Rabaey K, Rozendal RA, Yuan Z, Keller J (2011) Biofilm stratification during simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) at a biocathode. Bioresour Technol 102:334–341

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Hu H, Fan Y, Liu H (2009) Hydrogen production in single-chamber tubular microbial electrolysis cells using non-precious-metal catalysts. Int J Hydrogen Energy 34:8535–8542

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. He Z, Angenent LT (2006) Application of bacterial biocathodes in microbial fuel cells. Electroanalysis 18:2009–2015

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Polatides C, Kyriacou G (2005) Electrochemical reduction of nitrate ion on various cathodes—reaction kinetics on bronze cathode. J Appl Electrochem 35:421–427

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Gregory KB, Bond DR, Lovley DR (2004) Graphite electrodes as electron donors for anaerobic respiration. Environ Microbiol 6:596–604

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Clauwaert P, Rabaey K, Aelterman P, De Schamphelaire L, Pham TH, Boeckx P, Boon N, Verstraete W (2007) Biological denitrification in microbial fuel cells. Environ Sci Technol 41:3354–3360

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Fang C, Min B, Angelidaki I (2011) Nitrate as an oxidant in the cathode chamber of a microbial fuel cell for both power generation and nutrient removal purposes. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 164:464–474

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Dima GE, Beltramo GL, Koper MTM (2005) Nitrate reduction on single-crystal platinum electrodes. Electrochim Acta 50:4318–4326

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Lovley DR (2011) Powering microbes with electricity: direct electron transfer from electrodes to microbes. Environ Microbiol Reports 3:27–35

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Tandukar M, Huber SJ, Onodera T, Pavlostathis SG (2009) Biological chromium(VI) reduction in the cathode of a microbial fuel cell. Environ Sci Technol 43:8159–8165

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. APHA (2005) Standard methods for the examinatinon of water and wastewater. American Public Health Association, Washing ton

  20. Park HI, Dk Kim, Choi Y-J, Pak D (2005) Nitrate reduction using an electrode as direct electron donor in a biofilm-electrode reactor. Process Biochem 40:3383–3388

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Zhang L-h, Jia J-p, Ying D-w, Zhu N-w, Zhu Y-c (2011) Electrochemical effect on denitrification in different microenvironments around anodes and cathodes. Res Microbiol 156:88–92

    Google Scholar 

  22. Xu G, Chuanping F, Miao L, Lizhu H (2009) Electrochemical removal of nitrate ion on brass cathode and DSA anode. In: 3rd International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering, 2009. ICBBE 2009, pp 1–4

  23. Katsounaros I, Ipsakis D, Polatides C, Kyriacou G (2006) Efficient electrochemical reduction of nitrate to nitrogen on tin cathode at very high cathodic potentials. Electrochim Acta 52:1329–1338

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Mohan SV, Chandrasekhar K (2011) Self-induced bio-potential and graphite electron accepting conditions enhances petroleum sludge degradation in bio-electrochemical system with simultaneous power generation. Bioresour Technol 102:9532–9541

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. He Z, Mansfeld F (2009) Exploring the use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in microbial fuel cell studies. Energy Environ Sci 2:215–219

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Manohar AK, Bretschger O, Nealson KH, Mansfeld F (2008) The use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in the evaluation of the electrochemical properties of a microbial fuel cell. Bioelectrochemistry 72:149–154

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Ramasamy RP, Ren Z, Mench MM, Regan JM (2008) Impact of initial biofilm growth on the anode impedance of microbial fuel cells. Biotechnol Bioeng 101:101–108

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Borole AP, Aaron D, Hamilton CY, Tsouris C (2010) Understanding long-term changes in microbial fuel cell performance using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Environ Sci Technol 44:2740–2745

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Ter Heijne A, Schaetzle O, Gimenez S, Fabregat-Santiago F, Bisquert J, Strik DPBTB, Barriere F, Buisman CJN, Hamelers HVM (2011) Identifying charge and mass transfer resistances of an oxygen reducing biocathode. Energy Environ Sci 4:5035–5043

    Google Scholar 

  30. Zhang J-N, Zhao Q-L, Aelterman P, You S-J, Jiang J-Q (2008) Electricity generation in a microbial fuel cell with a microbially catalyzed cathode. Biotechnol Lett 30:1771–1776

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. You SJ, Ren NQ, Zhao QL, Wang JY, Yang FL (2009) Power generation and electrochemical analysis of biocathode microbial fuel cell using graphite fibre brush as cathode material. Fuel Cells 9:588–596

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Venkata Mohan S, Lalit Babu V, Srikanth S, Sarma PN (2008) Bio-electrochemical evaluation of fermentative hydrogen production process with the function of feeding pH. Int J Hydrogen Energy 33:4533–4546

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Cheng S, Xing D, Call DF, Logan BE (2009) Direct biological conversion of electrical current into methane by electromethanogenesis. Environ Sci Technol 43:3953–3958

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Srikanth S, Venkata Mohan S, Sarma PN (2010) Positive anodic poised potential regulates microbial fuel cell performance with the function of open and closed circuitry. Bioresour Technol 101:5337–5344

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Szekeres S, Kiss I, Kalman M, Soares MIM (2002) Microbial population in a hydrogen-dependent denitrification reactor. Water Res 36:4088–4094

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Kwang-Soon Choi, Jungmi Moon and Ramesh Kakarla for their help in during this work. This study was funded by Kyung Hee University—New researcher program. (Project number: 20090735).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kyung Hee University, 1 Seocheon-dong, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, 446-701, Republic of Korea

    Sanath Kondaveeti & Booki Min

Authors
  1. Sanath Kondaveeti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Booki Min
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Booki Min.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

449_2012_779_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Fig. S1 Schematic diagram of the two chamber bioelectrochemcial denitrification system for nitrate reduction. Fig. S2 Scanning electron micrograph image of cathode electrodes in carbon electrode (A) and biocathode (B). Fig. S3 Nitrate reduction and nitrogen transformation over times with biocathode cathodes (A) platinum (B) and plain carbon (C) at 1 V cell voltage. (DOCX 320 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kondaveeti, S., Min, B. Nitrate reduction with biotic and abiotic cathodes at various cell voltages in bioelectrochemical denitrification system. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 36, 231–238 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-012-0779-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-012-0779-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation