Dechlorination of dichloromethane by a biofilter enriched with electroactive bacteria: Performance, kinetics, and microbial community

Abstract

Dichloromethane (DCM) is a recalcitrant volatile organic compound that exhibits biological toxicity and bioaccumulation. In this study, gaseous DCM was removed using an electroactive bacterial biofilter (EBB) with graphite rod as the anode and carbon felt as the cathode. The highest removal efficiency (97.09%) was achieved at a cathodic potential of −600 mV (vs. Ag/AgCl). The EBB had a maximum elimination capacity of 79.29 g m−3 h−1 when the inlet load was 96.48 g m−3 h−1. There was no substrate inhibition phenomenon observed in the EBB, and the Michaelis–Menten model was used to describe the kinetics of the EBB. High-throughput sequencing indicated that electroactive genera such as Rhodanobacter sp., Sphingomonas sp., Pseudomonas sp., Chryseobacterium sp., Pseudochrobactrum sp., and Mycobacterium sp. dominated the EBB. The microbial communities were stable and were slightly affected by the DCM inlet concentration. The results can be applied for the effective treatment of recalcitrant volatile organic compounds (VOCs).