Enhancing organic contaminant degradation through integrating advanced oxidation processes with microbial electrochemical systems

Microbial electrochemical systems (MES) are studied to degrade organic contaminants with a lower energy demand, but degradation of recalcitrant compounds tends to be challenging. To enhance contaminant degradation in MES, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are synergistically linked to create cooperative processes such as bio-electro-Fenton (BEF) and enhanced bioanodes. BEF can achieve a high contaminant degradation efficiency with a low energy consumption due to the ability for energy recovery from the anodic organic wastes. Modifying a bioanode with catalytic oxidation materials, e.g., photocatalyst and MnO2, will achieve organic removal via the cooperation of catalysis and biodegradation. This paper has provided a concise review on the integration of AOPs with MES and identified and discussed the challenges such as deeper understanding of the electron transfer mechanisms, development of low-cost membrane, and the synergetic effects between functional materials and bacteria that are important to develop AOP-MES treatment systems.