TY - JOUR
T1 - Energy-efficient microbial electrochemical lignin and alkaline hydroxide recovery from DMR black liquor
AU - Jiang, Jinyue
AU - Chen, Xi
AU - Chen, Xiaowen
AU - Ren, Zhiyong Jason
N1 - Funding Information:
We appreciate the financial support from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This work was authored by Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC, the manager and operator of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for DOE under Contract No. DE-AC36–08GO28308. Funding is provided by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bioenegy Technologies Office. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. The authors acknowledge the use of Princeton's Imaging and Analysis Center (IAC), which is partially supported by the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC; DMR-1420541).
Funding Information:
We appreciate the financial support from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This work was authored by Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC, the manager and operator of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for DOE under Contract No. DE-AC36–08GO28308 . Funding is provided by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bioenegy Technologies Office. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. The authors acknowledge the use of Princeton's Imaging and Analysis Center (IAC), which is partially supported by the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC; DMR-1420541 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Black liquor is a complex waste stream generated from the fast-expanding biorefinery industry, and the high management cost has been known as a major development barrier. In this work, we demonstrated a rationally designed 4-chamber microbial electrolysis process that was capable of recovering the value-added lignin, NaOH, and H2 products while removing waste organics from the Deacetylation and Mechanical Refining (DMR) black liquor, which could potentially reduce the disposal cost by up to 40%. The lab-scale MEC achieved 52% organic removal from a highly concentrated feedstock (28,960 ± 212 mg/L COD) and recovered 83.2 mM NaOH under a small voltage application (1.2 V). Lignin recovery was observed to be as high as 13.98 ± 0.28 g/L, and 0.35 L/L/day H2 was produced with a faradaic efficiency of 93.5%. This work provided a good example on how complex liquid waste stream can be valorized via multi-functional microbial electrochemical technology, and how the traditionally unfavored pH gradient in an electrochemical reactor can be manipulated for lignin precipitation and alkaline recovery at the same time. The versatility and good performance in concurrent contaminants removal, lignin precipitation, H2 production and NaOH recovery demonstrate a good potential for microbial electrolysis in black liquor treatment.
AB - Black liquor is a complex waste stream generated from the fast-expanding biorefinery industry, and the high management cost has been known as a major development barrier. In this work, we demonstrated a rationally designed 4-chamber microbial electrolysis process that was capable of recovering the value-added lignin, NaOH, and H2 products while removing waste organics from the Deacetylation and Mechanical Refining (DMR) black liquor, which could potentially reduce the disposal cost by up to 40%. The lab-scale MEC achieved 52% organic removal from a highly concentrated feedstock (28,960 ± 212 mg/L COD) and recovered 83.2 mM NaOH under a small voltage application (1.2 V). Lignin recovery was observed to be as high as 13.98 ± 0.28 g/L, and 0.35 L/L/day H2 was produced with a faradaic efficiency of 93.5%. This work provided a good example on how complex liquid waste stream can be valorized via multi-functional microbial electrochemical technology, and how the traditionally unfavored pH gradient in an electrochemical reactor can be manipulated for lignin precipitation and alkaline recovery at the same time. The versatility and good performance in concurrent contaminants removal, lignin precipitation, H2 production and NaOH recovery demonstrate a good potential for microbial electrolysis in black liquor treatment.
KW - Black liquor
KW - H production
KW - Microbial electrolysis cell
KW - Recalcitrant wastewater
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U2 - 10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106529
DO - 10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106529
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85134606846
VL - 186
JO - Resources, Conservation and Recycling
JF - Resources, Conservation and Recycling
SN - 0921-3449
M1 - 106529
ER -