Α Microbial Electrolysis Cell-assisted Anaerobic Digestion process for enhanced treatment of industrial potato processing wastewater

This study deals with the treatment of an indus-trial potato processing wastewater, using a Microbial Electrolysis Cell-assisted Anaerobic Digestion (MEC-AD) system. For this purpose, two identical reactors were constructed, a control (AD) and a MEC-AD reactor. The MEC-AD reactor consisted of three anodic and three cathodic carbon felt electrodes. Both reactors operated for 160 d at a constant Hydraulic Retention Time of 15 d, whereas the effect of the applied voltage was evaluated on organic load degradation and biomethane production. The results showed that the MEC-AD reactor achieved increased particulate organic content degradation by 0.02 gCOD/(L d), and the increased hydrolysis rate of or-ganic content led to a tenfold increase in the biogas pro-duction of the MEC-AD (0.2 L/d relative to 0.02 L/d for the AD). Furthermore, the MEC-AD demonstrated en-hanced biogas quality (average CH4 content being over twice that of the AD), as well as mitigation of hydrogen sulfide producing bacteria which are antagonistic to methanogens. The results showed that the MEC-AD reac-tor outperformed the AD, achieving enhanced waste treatment and higher CH4 yield.