The degradation and simultaneous influence of bisphenol A on methane production in a bio-anode single-chamber microbial electrolysis cell

Abstract

The objective of this research was to estimate the effect of operational parameters on the performance of a bio-anode single-chamber microbial electrolysis cell (BSMEC) in degradation of bisphenol A (BPA) and simultaneous production of methane. To achieve this purpose, the influence of various parameters such as hydraulic retention time (HRT), applied voltage, C/N ratio and concentration of the BPA was examined on the performance of BSMEC during a 150-day period. According to the results, the BSMEC attained a BPA removal of 95.4%, a chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate of 94.9%, a methane production rate of 121.4 ± 2.2 mL/L.day and a methane content of 91.9% which were higher than these of the control system with 54.2%, 61.3% and 83.1 ± 2.2 mL/L.day and 71.1% respectively, at optimum condition (HRT=24 h, applied voltage=0.8 V, C/N ratio = 50 and BPA concentration = 10 mg/L). Our finding indicated that degradation of BPA, COD removal rate, methane production rate and methane content were improved as C/N ratio increased from 20 to 50. In the BSMEC, maximum energy efficiency was in the range of 93.1–96.8% with an average of 95.7%. As a result, the BSMEC is a promising alternative not only to degrade the endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) but also to generate the methane.