title: Characterization of methane production and microbial community shifts during waste activated sludge degradation in microbial electrolysis cells.
abstract: Microbial electrolysis cell (MECs) were investigated as a promising technology to manage waste activated sludge (WAS) reduction and bio-methane generation. The effect of WAS concentration on the MECs performance was discussed. At the optimal concentration of 15gCOD/L, maximum methane yield of MECs fed with alkaline pretreated WAS (A-WAS) were achieved with the value of 77.13±2.52LCH4/kg-COD on Day 3, which had been improved by 1.5-fold compared with MECs fed with raw WAS (R-WAS), while that was negligible in open circuit controls. Efficient sludge reduction was also obtained in terms of TCOD, total protein, TSS and VSS removal. Pyrosequencing revealed the dominance of exoelectrogen Geobacter and hydrogen-producing bacteria Petrimonas in MECs fed with WAS. Methanocorpusculum with the capacity of methane generation using CO2 and H2 also showed overwhelming dominance (96.01%). The large proportions of Petrimonas and Methanocorpusculum indicated the occurrence of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis in our methane-producing MECs.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Aijuan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Jianna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Defeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China. Electronic address: rnq@hit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Nanqi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ren
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D004572:Electrolysis; D045302:Geobacter; D008697:Methane / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D017018:Methanomicrobiales; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage; D008697:Methane
keywords: 454 pyrosequencing; Methane production; Microbial community shifts; Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs); Waste activated sludge (WAS)