Efficient removal of tetracycline using U-type continuous-flow bioelectrochemical system without ion exchange membrane or cathodic catalyst

作者：Zhang, Guodong; Sui, Xiaoyu; Xu, Yangyang; Jiao, Yan; Chang, Jo-Shu; Lee, Duu-Jong^*

来源：Bioresource Technology, 2022, 346: 126677.

DOI：10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126677

• Bioelectrochemical system
• Membrane-less
• Continuous-flow
• Tetracycline
• Antibiotic resistance genes
• Removal

A U-type membraneless continuous-flow bioelectmchemical system was developed to efficiently remove tetracycline and antibiotic resistance genes from synthetic wastewaters at hydraulic retention time of only eight hours. At the TC concentration of 20-80 mgL(-1) in feed, the removals of tetracycline all exceeded 95%, over 60-1200 mgL(-1) chemical oxygen demand, 30-150 mgL(-1) NH4+-N, and at 5-25 degrees C, superior to the performances reported in literature. The maximum power of the BES system peaked at 0.416 Wm(-3) at 20 mgL(-1) TC feeding, corresponding to open circle voltage of 0.90 V and internal resistance of 799.8 Omega. The community analysis showed that the elevated TC loadings forced the predominate population to be evolved to TC-degrading consortium. The relative abundances of tetA, tetC, tetO, tetQ, and tetW in treated effluent ranged 1.20 x 10(-6) to 2.60 x 10(-4), revealing that the present BES reactor has superior removal efficiency of antibiotic resistance genes.