Electrosorption of organic acids from aqueous bio-oil and conversion into hydrogen via microbial electrolysis cells

Park, Lydia Kyoung-Eun; Satinover, Scott J.; Yiacoumi, Sotira; Mayes, Richard T.; Borole, Abhijeet P.; Tsouris, Costas

doi:10.1016/j.renene.2018.02.076

Title: Electrosorption of organic acids from aqueous bio-oil and conversion into hydrogen via microbial electrolysis cells

Abstract

Neutralization of the bio-oil pH has been shown to generate a neutralized bio-oil aqueous phase (NBOAP) that includes most of the acidic components and a neutralized bio-oil organic phase (NBOOP) that includes hydrophobic organics, such as phenols. NBOOP can be used for fuel production, while NBOAP can be fed to microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) for hydrogen production. After pH neutralization, some organic acidic components remain in NBOOP. This work is focused on capturing acidic compounds from NBOOP through water extraction and electrosorption, and demonstrating hydrogen production via MECs. Capacitive deionization (CDI) is proven effective in capturing ions from NBOOP-contacted water and NBOAP via electrosorption. Captured acidic compounds enable the MEC application to effectively produce renewable hydrogen. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of 49.2%, 61.5%, and 60.8% for 2, 4, and 10 g/L-anode/day loading were observed, corresponding to a total COD degradation of 0.19 g/L, 0.79 g/L, and 1.3 g/L, respectively. A maximum hydrogen productivity of 4.3 L-H₂/L-anode/day was obtained. Major compounds in the water phase such as fatty acids, sugar derivatives, furanic and phenolic compounds were converted to hydrogen with an efficiency of 80–90%. Lastly, this approach may lead the entire biomass pyrolysis process to be an overall carbon-neutral process.

Authors:

Park, Lydia Kyoung-Eun ^[1]; Satinover, Scott J. ^[2]; Yiacoumi, Sotira ^[1];

^[3];

^[4];

^[5]

Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States). School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Education
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Education; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States). School of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Publication Date:: 2018-02-17

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office

OSTI Identifier:: 1430619

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1548697

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; DEAC05-00OR22725

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Renewable Energy

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 125; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0960-1481

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 09 BIOMASS FUELS; Bio-oil; Pyrolysis oil; pH neutralization; Electrosorption; Capacitive deionization; Microbial electrolysis

Citation Formats


                    Park, Lydia Kyoung-Eun, Satinover, Scott J., Yiacoumi, Sotira, Mayes, Richard T., Borole, Abhijeet P., and Tsouris, Costas. Electrosorption of organic acids from aqueous bio-oil and conversion into hydrogen via microbial electrolysis cells.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.renene.2018.02.076.

Copy to clipboard


                    Park, Lydia Kyoung-Eun, Satinover, Scott J., Yiacoumi, Sotira, Mayes, Richard T., Borole, Abhijeet P., & Tsouris, Costas. Electrosorption of organic acids from aqueous bio-oil and conversion into hydrogen via microbial electrolysis cells.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.02.076

Copy to clipboard


                    Park, Lydia Kyoung-Eun, Satinover, Scott J., Yiacoumi, Sotira, Mayes, Richard T., Borole, Abhijeet P., and Tsouris, Costas. Sat .  
"Electrosorption of organic acids from aqueous bio-oil and conversion into hydrogen via microbial electrolysis cells".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.02.076.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1430619.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1430619,

  title        = {Electrosorption of organic acids from aqueous bio-oil and conversion into hydrogen via microbial electrolysis cells},

  author       = {Park, Lydia Kyoung-Eun and Satinover, Scott J. and Yiacoumi, Sotira and Mayes, Richard T. and Borole, Abhijeet P. and Tsouris, Costas},

  abstractNote = {Neutralization of the bio-oil pH has been shown to generate a neutralized bio-oil aqueous phase (NBOAP) that includes most of the acidic components and a neutralized bio-oil organic phase (NBOOP) that includes hydrophobic organics, such as phenols. NBOOP can be used for fuel production, while NBOAP can be fed to microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) for hydrogen production. After pH neutralization, some organic acidic components remain in NBOOP. This work is focused on capturing acidic compounds from NBOOP through water extraction and electrosorption, and demonstrating hydrogen production via MECs. Capacitive deionization (CDI) is proven effective in capturing ions from NBOOP-contacted water and NBOAP via electrosorption. Captured acidic compounds enable the MEC application to effectively produce renewable hydrogen. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of 49.2%, 61.5%, and 60.8% for 2, 4, and 10 g/L-anode/day loading were observed, corresponding to a total COD degradation of 0.19 g/L, 0.79 g/L, and 1.3 g/L, respectively. A maximum hydrogen productivity of 4.3 L-H2/L-anode/day was obtained. Major compounds in the water phase such as fatty acids, sugar derivatives, furanic and phenolic compounds were converted to hydrogen with an efficiency of 80–90%. Lastly, this approach may lead the entire biomass pyrolysis process to be an overall carbon-neutral process.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.renene.2018.02.076},

  journal      = {Renewable Energy},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 125,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2018},

  month        = {2}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Publisher's Version of Record

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.02.076

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 2 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

Figure 1: CDI cell with two half cells, each of which contains (1) a Plexiglas cover, (2) a viton gasket, (3) a titanium plate (current collector) with a carbon sheet, (4) a plastic mesh to keep the electrodes separated, and (5) a hollow middle viton gasket with syringe needles formore »

All figures and tables (15 total)

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Figures / Tables found in this record:

Figure 10 (A) (p. 29)

Figure 10 (B) (p. 30)

Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

Biotransformation of furanic and phenolic compounds with hydrogen gas production in a microbial electrolysis cell

Journal Article Zeng, Xiaofei ; Borole, Abhijeet P. ; Pavlostathis, Spyros G. - Environmental Science and Technology

In this study, furanic and phenolic compounds are problematic byproducts resulting from the decomposition of lignocellulosic biomass during biofuel production. This study assessed the capacity of a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) to produce hydrogen gas (H₂) using a mixture of two furanic (furfural, FF; 5-hydroxymethyl furfural, HMF) and three phenolic (syringic acid, SA; vanillic acid, VA; and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, HBA) compounds as the sole carbon and energy source in the bioanode. The rate and extent of biotransformation of the five compounds, efficiency of H₂ production, as well as the anode microbial community structure were investigated. The five compounds were completelymore »« less
Cited by 15
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b02313

Full Text Available
Hydrogen production from pine-derived catalytic pyrolysis aqueous phase via microbial electrolysis

Journal Article Brooks, Victoria ; Lewis, Alex J. ; Dulin, Parker ; ... - Biomass and Bioenergy

In this paper, microbial electrolysis of an aqueous phase generated from catalytic pyrolysis of pine sawdust was investigated for renewable hydrogen production. The microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) performance was investigated at an organic loading rate ranging from 2 to 50 g/L-day. A maximum hydrogen productivity of 5.8 ± 0.18 L/L-day was obtained, however, the productivity increased linearly only up to a loading rate of 10 g/L-day. The highest current density achieved was 6.8 ± 0.1 A/m². The efficiency of conversion of the substrate to current in the anode decreased with increasing loading, but the initial maximum Coulombic efficiency was 98more »« less
Cited by 1
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2018.08.008

Full Text Available
Performance and community structure dynamics of microbial electrolysis cells operated on multiple complex feedstocks

Journal Article Satinover, Scott J. ; Rodriguez, Jr., Miguel ; Campa, Maria F. ; ... - Biotechnology for Biofuels

Microbial electrolysis is a promising technology for converting aqueous wastes into hydrogen. However, substrate adaptability is an important feature, seldom documented in microbial electrolysis cells (MECs). In addition, the correlation between substrate composition and community structure has not been well established. This study used an MEC capable of producing over 10 L/L-day of hydrogen from a switchgrass-derived bio-oil aqueous phase and investigated four additional substrates, tested in sequence on a mature biofilm. The additional substrates included a red oak-derived bio-oil aqueous phase, a corn stover fermentation product, a mixture of phenol and acetate, and acetate alone. The MECs fed withmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-020-01803-y

Full Text Available
Separation of switchgrass bio-oil by water/organic solvent addition and pH adjustment

Journal Article Park, Lydia Kyoung-Eun ; Ren, Shoujie ; Yiacoumi, Sotira ; ... - Energy and Fuels

Applications of bio-oil are limited by its challenging properties including high moisture content, low pH, high viscosity, high oxygen content, and low heating value. Separation of switchgrass bio-oil components by adding water, organic solvents (hexadecane and octane), and sodium hydroxide may help to overcome these issues. Acetic acid and phenolic compounds were extracted in aqueous and organic phases, respectively. Polar chemicals, such as acetic acid, did not partition in the organic solvent phase. Acetic acid in the aqueous phase after extraction is beneficial for a microbial-electrolysis-cell application to produce hydrogen as an energy source for further hydrodeoxygenation of bio-oil. Organicmore »« less
Cited by 6
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.5b02537

Full Text Available
Unravelling biocomplexity of electroactive biofilms for producing hydrogen from biomass

Journal Article Lewis, Alex J. ; Campa, Maria F. ; Hazen, Terry C. ; ... - Microbial Biotechnology (Online)

Leveraging nature's biocomplexity for solving human problems requires better understanding of the syntrophic relationships in engineered microbiomes developed in bioreactor systems. Understanding the interactions between microbial players within the community will be key to enhancing conversion and production rates from biomass streams. Here we investigate a bioelectrochemical system employing an enriched microbial consortium for conversion of a switchgrass-derived bio-oil aqueous phase (BOAP) into hydrogen via microbial electrolysis (MEC). MECs offer the potential to produce hydrogen in an integrated fashion in biorefinery platforms and as a means of energy storage through decentralized production to supply hydrogen to fuelling stations, as themore »« less
Cited by 5
https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.12756

Similar Records