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H2020Individual fellowship2018–2020

DIET · Direct Interspecies Electron Transfer in advanced anaerobic digestion system for gaseous transport biofuel production

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2018-05-01 → 2020-04-30
EU contribution
€187,866
Participants
1
Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Direct Interspecies Electron Transfer in advanced anaerobic digestion system for gaseous transport biofuel production

Biogas can accelerate the decarbonisation of the European energy sector, and is suggested to play significant roles in future transport systems. Producing biogas from algae and other renewable substrates may be effected through anaerobic digestion (AD), which converts biodegradable components into biogas (a mixture of approximately 60% CH4 and 40% CO2) through different communities of syntrophic bacteria and archaea. The upgraded “green” gas containing over 97% biomethane can be used to as an advanced transport biofuel for heavy goods vehicles and bus fleets. However, existing AD technologies can suffer from two major drawbacks: (1) Efficiency of the AD process is sensitive to many factors (such as substrate hydrolysis, pH and microbial activity), which can result in instability and inefficiency of biogas production; (2) the anaerobic digestate generated after AD still possess a significant amount of energy and may require significant land area to assimilate nutrient load. The inefficiency of AD fundamentally arises from the interspecies electron transfer between syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea. Therefore, the challenges on how to improve electron transfer efficiency and overall energy recovery of AD are significant and must be overcome to enhance biogas yield and optimise the third-generation biofuel system. The overall research objective is to propose a future AD-based circular economy system, which produces renewable gaseous transport biofuel. The research explores the mechanisms of microbial electron transfer in the presence of different conductive materials, such as highly conductive but expensive graphene and more cost effective biochar including those derived from digestate for ultimate system circularity. The biomethane production rate in the proposed system can be enhanced by between 20 and 40% as compared to existing AD technology without addition of conductive materials.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Anaerobic digestion (AD) has been widely applied to produce biogas through complex communities of syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea. However, AD can suffer from the inefficiency of biogas production, which fundamentally arises from the low efficiency of mediated interspecies electron transfer (MIET) via hydrogen between bacteria and archaea. Dr Richen Lin proposes an advanced AD-based circular economy system by introducing conductive materials (such as biocompatible graphene nanomaterial and digestate derived pyrochar) for third generation gaseous transport biofuel production from algae feedstock. The proposal will particularly explore the mechanism of efficient direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) between bacteria and methanogens in the presence of conductive materials. The biomethane production rate and total energy recovery in the proposed system are expected to be enhanced by 20-40% as compared to existing AD technology. The goal will be achieved by the following research objectives: 1) Theoretically compare the efficiencies of MIET and DIET in AD; 2) Develop optimal strategies to stimulate DIET and improve biogas production from algae; 3) Outline a future circular economy system by introducing pyrochar into AD. Dr Lin has a strong record of publications (26 peer review journal articles) in bioenergy through his PhD studies in Zhejiang University, China. He proposes a two year stay in the €35M Science Foundation Ireland funded research centre Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI). He will be hosted in the Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork and supervised by Prof Jerry Murphy. The fellowship will incorporate a three month secondment in Gas Networks Ireland (an industrial partner in MaREI) to facilitate the integration of new technology in green gas industry. The objective of this proposal is to establish Dr Lin as a leading researcher in bioenergy and assist him in acquiring a position of professional maturity.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK - NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK · CorkCoordinatorIreland

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union