The microbial electrochemical cell (MXC) is a novel environmental-biotechnology platform for renewable energy production from waste streams. The two main goals of MXCs are recovery of renewable energy and production of clean water. Up to now, energy recovery, Coulombic efficiency (CE), and treatment efficiency of MXCs fed with real wastewater have been low. Therefore, the overarching goal of my research was to address the main causes for these low efficiencies; this knowledge will advance MXCs technology toward commercialization.

First, I found that fermentation, not anode respiration, was the rate-limiting step for achieving complete organics removal, along with high current densities and CE. The best performance was achieved by doing most of the fermentation in an independent reactor that preceded the MXC. I also outlined how the efficiency of fermentation inside MXCs can be enhanced in order to make MXCs-based technologies cost-competitive with other anaerobic environmental biotechnologies. I revealed that the carbohydrate and protein contents and the BOD5/COD ratio governed the efficiency of organic-matter fermentation: high protein content and low BOD5/COD ratio were the main causes for low fermentation efficiency.

Next, I showed how a high ammonium concentration can provide kinetic and metabolic advantages or disadvantages for anode-respiring bacteria (ARB) over their competitors, particularly methanogens. When exposed to a relatively high ammonium concentration (i.e., > 2.2 g total ammonia-nitrogen (TAN)/L), the ARB were forced to divert a greater electron flow toward current generation and, consequently, had lower net biomass yield. However, the ARB were relatively more resistant to high free ammonia-nitrogen (FAN) concentrations, up to 200 mg FAN/L. I used FAN to manage ecological interactions among ARB and non-ARB in an MXC fed with fermentable substrate (glucose). Utilizing a combination of chemical, electrochemical, and genomic tools, I found that increased FAN led to higher CE and lower methane (CH4) production by suppressing methanogens. Thus, managing FAN offers a practical means to suppress methanogenesis, instead of using expensive and unrealistic inhibitors. My research findings open up new opportunities for more efficient operation of MXCs; this will enhance MXC scale-up and commercial applications, particularly for energy-positive treatment of waste streams containing recalcitrant organics.