Trichloroethene dechlorination and H2 evolution are alternative biological pathways of electric charge utilization by a dechlorinating culture in a bioelectrochemical system

Recently, the proof-of-principle of an innovative bioelectrochemical process for trichloroethene (TCE) bioremediation was presented. In this newly developed process, a solid-state electrode polarized to -450 mV (vs SHE), in the presence of a low-potential redox mediator (methyl viologen), is employed as an electron donor for the microbial reductive dechlorination of TCE to lower or nonchlorinated end products. In the present study, we investigated the influence of methyl viologen and TCE concentrations on process performance. Using a highly enriched hydrogenotrophic dechlorinating culture, as a source culture in batch experiments, we found that TCE dechlorination and H2 evolution were the two main biological reactions which were stimulated. The relative contribution of the two reactions appeared to be strongly dependent on the mediator concentration. At the lowest methyl viologen (MV) concentrations (25-750 μM), only TCE dechlorination was stimulated, and no H2 was produced; at higher MV concentrations, both reactions occurred simultaneously, although they showed distinct kinetic features. In batch experiments in which TCE was omitted from the system, the rate of H2 production was remarkably increased (up to 80 times), suggesting that protons represented an alternative electron sink in the absence of the more energetically favorable TCE. Clearly, optimization of the process for TCE dechlorination requires H 2 evolution to be minimized by, for instance, operating the system at low mediator concentrations, and this can be possibly achieved through proper physical immobilization of the mediator at the electrode surface. On the other hand, the observed bioelectrocatalytic H2 production occurred at virtually no overpotentials with respect to the thermodynamic 2H +/H2 potential. This finding revealed that the dechlorinating culture employed represented quite an exceptional and previously unrecognized biocatalytic system for H2 production.