Opportunities for microbial electrochemistry in municipal wastewater treatment – an overview

Microbial bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) utilise living microorganisms to drive oxidation and reduction reactions at solid electrodes. BESs could potentially be used at municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to recover the energy content of organic matter, to produce chemicals useful at the site, or to monitor and control biological treatment processes. In this paper, we review bioelectrochemical technologies that could be applied for municipal wastewater treatment. Sjölunda WWTP in Malmö, Sweden, is used as an example to illustrate how the different technologies potentially could be integrated in an existing treatment plant and the impact they could have on the plant’s utilization of energy and chemicals