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Sulfide produced from dissimilatory sulfate reduction can combine with hydrogen to form hydrogen sulfide, causing odor issues and environmental pollution. To address this problem, ferrihydrite-humic acid coprecipitate was added to improve assimilatory sulfate reduction (ASR), resulting in a decrease in sulfide production (190.2 ± 14.6 mg/L in the Fh-HA group vs. 246.3 ± 8.1 mg/L in the Fh group) with high sulfate removal. Humic acid, adsorbed on the surface of ferrihydrite, delayed secondary mineralization of ferrihydrite under sulfate reduction condition. Therefore, more iron-reducing species (e.g. Trichococcus, Geobacter) were enriched with ferrihydrite-humic acid coprecipitate to transfer more electrons to other species, which led to more COD reduction, an increase in electron transfer capacity, and a decrease in the NADH/NAD + ratio. Metagenomic analysis also indicated that functional genes related to ASR was enhanced with ferrihydrite-humic acid coprecipitate. Thus, the addition of ferrihydrite-humic acid coprecipitate can be considered as a promising candidate for anaerobic sulfate wastewater treatment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Feammox has been applied to wastewater biological nitrogen removal. However, few studies have reported that Fe(III)(hydr)oxides induced Anammox consortia to remove NH 4 + via the Feammox pathway. In this study, Fe(OH) 3 was added to Anammox systems to investigate its effect on nitrogen removal via Feammox. The specific Anammox activity increased by 39 % by Fe(OH) 3 . Ammonia oxidation was observed to occur along with Fe(III) reduction and Fe(II) generation, which was further confirmed by the isotope test with feeding 15 NH 4 + -N to detect 30 N 2 . The cyclic voltammetry test showed that electron-storage capacity of Anammox sludge increased with Fe(OH) 3 . In situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy suggested that Fe(OH) 3 enhanced the polarization of functional groups of outer membrane cytochrome of Anammox consortia to benefit extracellular electron transfer. This study demonstrated that Fe(OH) 3 could induce Anammox consortia to perform extracellular respiration to enhance NH 4 + -N removal in the Anammox sludge system., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) production from waste activated sludge (WAS) is restricted by poor biodegradability of WAS and low electron transfer efficiency. Herein, a novel ferroferric oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) technique was proposed. Results indicated that the MCFAs yield and selectivity were respectively enhanced by 155.4% and 66.7% in the Fe 3 O 4 -mediated WAS. Mechanistic studies disclosed that Fe 3 O 4 promoted substrates degradation through conducting dissimilatory iron reduction (DIR) and stimulating hydrolase activity, providing precursors for chain elongation (CE). Generally, Fe 3 O 4 improved the key processes for MCFA production at different degrees, i.e., hydrolysis, acidification and CE. Interestingly, MCFAs yield enhancement was primarily ascribed to facilitated electron transfer rather than DIR or produced ferrous iron, which could be supported by the analyses of electrochemical properties, electron transfer system activity and morphology. Further, Fe 3 O 4 shifted the key microorganisms in favor of MCFAs production. Overall, this strategy could improve MCFAs production, sludge dewatering and phosphorus removal, concurrently., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, different biochar (based on different pyrolytic temperatures and iron dosage) were prepared, characterized and used as individual additives for promoting acid orange 7 (AO7) anaerobic digestion. After X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) characterization, 600 °C was proved to be the preferred temperature. Subsequently, biochar pyrolyzed at 600 °C with different iron dosage were added into five anaerobic reactors. Results showed that COD removal efficiency reached the maximum value (88.5%) with the presence of 600-1 biochar, which was 19.0% higher than control reactor (without biochar added). Further analysis indicated that more functional groups were found in 600-1 biochar could effectively improve the electron accepting capacities (EAC) and electron donating capacities (EDC). Combined with the enrichment of exoelectrogens related to syntrophic metabolism, it can be concluded that the addition of biochar could effectively improve the electron transfer efficiency which would be beneficial for AO7 removal., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a Fe 2 O 3 supported on conductive carbon cloth (FC) was prepared and supplemented into anaerobic digestion reactors to improve propionate degradation. In the FC-supplemented reactors, the cumulative methane production and propionate degradation increased by 15.4% and 19.67% compared with those of the control, respectively. Less methane production with H 2 /CO 2 as the sole substrate in the culture taken from the FC reactors suggested that interspecies hydrogen transfer in the FC reactors was weaker. These results suggested that direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) was established in the FC reactors to improve the performance. Fe 2 O 3 increased the secretion of electron shuttle components of extracellular polymeric substances to increase electron exchange capacity of biomass of the FC reactors, which further facilitated the DIET. Analysis on microbial communities confirmed that the abundance of microorganisms-related DIET in the FC reactors was higher than that in the control., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The improved performances during anaerobic degradation of phenol to methane with Fe(OH) 3 were usually inapparent, due to its lower solubility (unaccessible to dissimilatory iron reduction) and more positive reduction potential of Fe(III)/Fe(II) (unfavorable for enriching Fe(III)-reducing bacteria [IRBs]). In this study, citrate, the organic chelates, were used to solubilize Fe(III) with the aim of improving the phenol degradation and declining the reduction potential of Fe(III)/Fe(II). Results showed that, in the co-occurrence of citrate and Fe(OH) 3 , the degradation rates of phenol were about 1.3-fold rapider than that with sole Fe(OH) 3 . Analysis of cyclic voltammetry demonstrated that the reduction potential of Fe(III)/Fe(II) in the form of Fe(OH) 3 (-0.41 to -0.28 V vs Ag/AgCl) declined to -0.61 to -0.41 V. As a result, the Fe(III)-reducing genera, such as Petrimonas and Shewanella, which held a great potential of proceeding syntrophic metabolism via direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET), were significantly enriched., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Commercial ethanol production from straw is a series of complex processes that are energy-intensive and uneconomical. Corn straw was used as a bioethanol source to mix with waste activated sludge for improving anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) in this study. Ethanol production from the straw after yeast fermentation was 1400-2200 mg COD/L, accounting for about 0.1% of the fermentative effluent, but methane production of the yeast-group increased by 36% compared to that of control-group with no ethanol production in advance. Volatile suspended solid removal achieved 60%, obviously higher than common anaerobic digestion (AD). Multiple lines of evidence including sludge conductance, effects of activated carbon on methanogenesis and microbial community demonstrated that ethanol from the straw fermentation stimulated direct interspecies electron transfer to be established in the digesters. The results suggested that using ethanol produced from straw was a cost-effective novel way for energy recovery from disposal of agricultural and municipal wastes., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Low anaerobic digestion efficiency of wheat straw (WS) has been an intractable problem owing to its high C/N ratio and complex structure. In this study, co-digestion of WS and waste activated sludge (WAS) at different ratios was performed to identify conditions that would elevate the acidic pH and increase methane production. The results showed that using a 1:1 ratio of WS and WAS, methane production in the co-digester was 26.9% higher than the sum of equal WAS and WS mono-digestion. When Fe 3 O 4 was added to the co-digester, the acidic pH was further relieved and the anaerobic digestion efficiency was additionally enhanced. Microbial analysis showed that the ethanol-type fermentative bacterial genus Ethanoligenens was enriched in the WAS + WS-Fe 3 O 4 reactor, in which the production of propionate was notably reduced, indicating that Fe 3 O 4 could prevent the accumulation of volatile fatty acids by changing the types of fermentative bacteria present and promote anaerobic digestion efficiency., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Granular activated carbon (GAC) or magnetite could promote methane production from organic wastes, but their roles in enhancing anaerobic sludge digestion have not been clarified. GAC, magnetite and their combination were complemented into sludge digesters, respectively. Experimental results showed that average methane production increased by 7.3% for magnetite, 13.1% for GAC, and 20% for the combination of magnetite and GAC, and the effluent TCOD of the control, magnetite, GAC and magnetite-GAC digesters on day 56 were 53.2, 49.6, 48.0 and 46.6 g/L, respectively. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), nitrogen adsorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and microbial analysis indicated that magnetite enriched iron-reducing bacteria responsible for sludge hydrolysis while GAC enhanced syntrophic metabolism between iron-reducing bacteria and methanogens due to its high electrical conductivity and large surface area. Supplementing magnetite and GAC together into an anaerobic digester simultaneously accelerated sludge hydrolysis and methane production, resulting in better sludge digestion performance., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

ZVI was reported to enrich H 2 -utilizing methanogens that enhanced interspecies H 2 transfer, while Fe(III) oxide served as a conductive material to promote direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET). However, the interaction of these two modes in anaerobic digestion has not been clarified yet. In this study, when adding Fe 3 O 4 and ZVI simultaneously into an anaerobic digester, the abundance of hydrogenotrophic methanogens decreased drastically compared to ZVI-added digester and Fe-free digester. However, the methane production of ZVI + Fe 3 O 4 added digester were 68.9% higher than Fe-free digester and 20.0% higher than ZVI-added digester, respectively. Sludge reduction rate of these three digesters also showed similar results. These indicated that hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis was not the main reason for methanogenesis in Fe 3 O 4 -added digester. Instead, Syntrophomonas and Methanosaeta were specially enriched in Fe 3 O 4 -added digesters, which implied that the potential DIET between Syntrophomonas and Methanosaeta was likely a crucial reason for accelerating anaerobic digestion of waste sludge., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, Fe(OH) 3 was dosed into anaerobic reactor (R1) to stimulate the electron transfer process during the decoloration treatment. As results indicated, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and decoloration efficiency were increased by 61.7% and 32.0% than that of the control reactor (R2), respectively. The cyclic-voltammetric analysis of the effluent demonstrated that the cycles of Fe(III)/Fe(II) and 1-imino-2-napthoquinone/1-amino-2-napthol (oxidative/reductive state of the decoloration intermediate product) had been established in R1. The concentration of cytochrome c and the conductivity of suspended sludge in R1 were also 3.2 and 2.1 times higher than that in R2. All experiments above indicated that the electron transfer process between substrates and azo bonds was accelerated efficiently. Furthermore, the abundance of iron reducing bacteria was higher than that of R2, indicating that dissimilatory iron reduction as a reason for the Fe(III)/Fe(II) cycle played an important role in the anaerobic decoloration treatment., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) is an alternative to syntrophic metabolism in natural carbon cycle as well as in anaerobic digesters, but its function in anaerobic treatment of sulfate-containing wastewater have not yet to be described. Here, conductive stainless steel was added into anaerobic digesters for treating sulfate-containing wastewater to investigate the potential role of DIET in the response to the sulfate impact. Results showed that adding the conductive stainless steel made the anaerobic digestion less affected by the sulfate reduction than adding insulative plastic material. With adding stainless steel, methane production of the digesters increased by 7.5%-24.6%. Microbial analysis showed that the dissimilatory Fe (III) reducers like Geobacter species were enriched on the surface of the stainless steel. These results implied that the potential DIET of methanogenesis was established associating with stainless steel to outcompete the sulfate reduction., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Bio-methanogenic digestion of incineration leachate is hindered by high OLRs, which can lead to build-up of VFAs, drops in pH and ultimately in reactor souring. It was hypothesized that incorporation of carbon cloth into reactors treating leachate would promote DIET and enhance reactor performance. To examine this possibility, carbon cloth was added to laboratory-scale UASB reactors that were fed incineration leachate. As expected, the carbon-cloth amended reactor could operate stably with a 34.2% higher OLR than the control (49.4 vs 36.8kgCOD/(m 3 d)). Microbial community analysis showed that bacteria capable of extracellular electron transfer and methanogens known to participate in DIET were enriched on the carbon cloth surface, and conductivity of sludge from the carbon cloth amended reactor was almost twofold higher than sludge from the control (9.77 vs 5.47μS/cm), suggesting that microorganisms in the experimental reactor may have been expressing electrically conductive filaments., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this work was to study the methanogenic metabolism of dog food, a food waste surrogate, in laboratory-scale reactors with different carbon-based conductive materials. Carbon cloth, carbon felt, and granular activated carbon all permitted higher organic loading rates and promoted faster recovery of soured reactors than the control reactors. Microbial community analysis revealed that specific and substantial enrichments of Sporanaerobacter and Methanosarcina were present on the carbon cloth surface. These results, and the known ability of Sporanaerobacter species to transfer electrons to elemental sulfur, suggest that Sporanaerobacter species can participate in direct interspecies electron transfer with Methanosarcina species when carbon cloth is available as an electron transfer mediator., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an important energy strategy for converting organic waste to CH4. A major factor limiting the practical applicability of AD is the relatively long hydraulic retention time (HRT) which declines the treatment efficiency of digesters. A coupling process of anaerobic digestion and 'electromethanogenesis' was proposed to enhance anaerobic digestion at a short HRT in this study. Microorganisms analysis indicated that the electric-biological reactor enriched hydrogenotrophic methanogens in both cathodic biofilm and suspended sludge, helping achieve the high organic removal (71.0% vs 42.3% [control reactor]) and CH4 production (248.5mL/h vs 51.3mL/h), while the additional electric input was only accounted for 25.6% of the energy income from the increased CH4 production. This study demonstrated that a bioelectrochemical enhanced anaerobic reactor could improve the CH4 production and organic removal at a short HRT, providing an economically feasible scheme to treat wastewater., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Promoting direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) to enhance syntrophic metabolism may be a strategy for accelerating the conversion of organic wastes to methane, but microorganisms capable of metabolizing propionate and butyrate via DIET under methanogenic conditions have yet to be identified. In an attempt to establish methanogenic communities metabolizing propionate or butyrate with DIET, enrichments were initiated with up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB), similar to those that were previously reported to support communities that metabolized ethanol with DIET that relied on direct biological electrical connections. In the absence of any amendments, microbial communities enriched were dominated by microorganisms closely related to pure cultures that are known to metabolize propionate or butyrate to acetate with production of H2. When biochar was added to the reactors there was a substantial enrichment on the biochar surface of 16S rRNA gene sequences closely related to Geobacter and Methanosaeta species known to participate in DIET., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Increase of methanogenesis in methane-producing microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) is frequently believed as a result of cathodic reduction of CO2. Recent studies indicated that this electromethanogenesis only accounted for a little part of methane production during anaerobic sludge digestion. Instead, direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) possibly plays an important role in methane production. In this study, anaerobic digestion of sludge were investigated in a single-chamber MEC reactor, a carbon-felt supplemented reactor and a common anaerobic reactor to evaluate the effects of DIET on the sludge digestion. The results showed that adding carbon felt into the reactor increased 12.9% of methane production and 17.2% of sludge reduction. Imposing a voltage on the carbon felt further improved the digestion. Current calculation showed that the cathodic reduction only contributed to 27.5% of increased methane production. Microbial analysis indicated that DIET played an important role in the anaerobic sludge digestion in the MEC., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Syntrophic metabolism of alcohols and fatty acids is a critical step in anaerobic digestion, which if enhanced can better stabilize the process and enable shorter retention times. Direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) has recently been recognized as an alternative route to hydrogen interspecies transfer as a mechanism for interspecies syntrophic electron exchange. Therefore, the possibility of accelerating syntrophic metabolism of ethanol in up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors by incorporating conductive materials in reactor design was investigated. Graphite, biochar, and carbon cloth all immediately enhanced methane production and COD removal. As the hydraulic retention time was decreased the increased effectiveness of treatment in reactors with conductive materials increased versus the control reactor. When these conductive materials were removed from the reactors rates of syntrophic metabolism declined to rates comparable to the control reactor. These results suggest that incorporating conductive materials in the design of UASB reactors may enhance digester effectiveness., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, an acidogenic reactor packed with a pair of Fe-carbon electrodes (R1) was developed to enhance anaerobic acidogenesis of organic wastewater at short hydraulic retention times. The results indicated that the acidogenic efficiency was improved by settling a bio-electrochemical system. When hydraulic retention times decreased from 12 to 3h, R1 showed 18.9% more chemical oxygen demand removal and 13.8% more acidification efficiency. After cutting off the voltage of R1, the COD removal decreased by about 5%. Coupling of Fe(2+) leaching and electric field accelerated the hydrolysis of polysaccharide, relieving its accumulation in the sludge phase. Several acidophilic methanogenic Archaea such as Methanosarcina sp. were enriched in R1, which was favorable for consuming organic acids and preventing excessive pH decline. Thus, the developed acidogenic reactor with Fe-carbon electrodes is expected to be potentially effective and useful for wastewater treatment., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge usually requires pretreatment procedure to improve the bioavailability of sludge, which involves considerable energy and high expenditures. This study proposes a cost-effective method for enhanced anaerobic digestion of sludge without a pretreatment by directly adding iron into the digester. The results showed that addition of Fe(0) powder could enhance 14.46% methane yield, and Fe scrap (clean scrap) could further enhance methane yield (improving rate 21.28%) because the scrap has better mass transfer efficiency with sludge and liquid than Fe(0) powder. The scrap of Fe with rust (rusty scrap) could induce microbial Fe(III) reduction, which resulted in achieving the highest methane yield (improving rate 29.51%), and the reduction rate of volatile suspended solids (VSS) was also highest (48.27%) among Fe powder, clean scrap and rusty scrap. PCR-DGGE proved that the addition of rusty scrap could enhance diversity of acetobacteria and enrich iron-reducing bacteria to enhance degradation of complex substrates., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) devices are efficient for wastewater treatment, but its application was limited due to low anode oxidation rate. The objective of this study was to improve anode performance of a MEC combined anaerobic reactor (R1) for high concentration industrial wastewater treatment via dosing Fe(OH)3. For the first 53 days without power, the addition of Fe(OH)3 in R1 enhanced the degradation of reactive brilliant red X-3B dye and sucrose. Applying a voltage of 0.8 V in R1 resulted in a higher decolorization and COD removal through driving the redox reactions at electrodes under Fe(III)-reducing conditions. Real-time PCR and enzyme activity analysis showed that the abundance and azoreductase activity of bacteria were improved in R1. Pyrosequencing revealed that dominant populations in anode biofilm and R1 were more diverse and abundant than the common anaerobic reactor (R2), and there was a significant distinction among anode film, R1 and R2 in microbial community structure., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Azo dye wastewater treatment was enhanced in an acidogenic reactor (A1) by Fe(0) dosing. Both COD (50%) and color (60%) removal in A1 were stable when the dye concentrations were increased from 200 to 800 mg/L. However, the performances of a Fe(0)-free control reactor (A2) showed low COD (34%) and color (32%) removals. The reason was attributed that Fe(0) dosing enhanced the activity of fermentative bacteria, which played an important role in acidogenesis and decolorization. The methanogenic reactor fed with the effluent of A1 exhibited higher removal efficiency and treatment stability. These results suggested that Fe(0) powder dosing was helpful to improve acidogenesis and decolorization to create a favorable feeding condition for the subsequent methanogenic treatment., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Slow proliferation of anammox bacteria is a major problem limiting the wider application of anammox technology in practical wastewater treatment. A novel anammox reactor packed with a Fe electrode was developed for enhancing anammox consortium activity and accelerating the startup of anammox process. After 125 days' operation, total nitrogen removal rate achieved 1209.6 mg N/L/d in this hybrid reactor (R1), which was significantly higher than that in a control anammox reactor without Fe electrode (R2, 973.3 mg N/L/d). Raising the voltage applied for the electrode in a given extent (≤0.6 V) enhanced the performance of the reactor, while the voltage more than 0.8 V reduced the anammox performance. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation along with transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis of the sludge taken from the reactors revealed that a more compacted microbial community structure was formed in R1. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) together with DNA analysis indicated that anammox bacteria were highly enriched with the presence of the Fe electrode., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A zero valent iron (ZVI) bed with a pair of electrodes was packed in an anaerobic reactor aiming at enhancing treatment of azo dye wastewater. The experiments were carried out in three reactors operated in parallel: an electric field enhanced ZVI-anaerobic reactor (R1), a ZVI-anaerobic reactor (R2) and a common anaerobic reactor (R3). R1 presented the highest performance in removal of COD and color. Raising voltage in R1 further improved its performance. Scanning electron microscopy images displayed that the structure of granular sludge from R1 was intact after being fed with the high dye concentration, while that of R3 was broken. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis indicated that the abundance of methanogens in R1 was significantly greater than that in the other two reactors. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis showed that the coupling of electric field and ZVI increased the diversity of microbial community and especially enhanced bacterial strains responsible for decolorization., (Crown Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)