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Microbial electrochemical system: an emerging technology for remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from soil and sediments

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Abstract

Worldwide industrialization and other human activities have led to a frightening stage of release of hazardous, highly persistent, toxic, insoluble, strongly adsorbed to the soil and high molecular weight ubiquitous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils and sediments. The various conventional remediation methods are being used to remediate PAHs with certain drawbacks. Time taking process, high expenditure, excessive quantities of sludge generation, and various chemical requirements do not only make these methods outdated but produce yet much resistant and toxic intermediate metabolites. These disadvantages may be overcome by using a microbial electrochemical system (MES), a booming technology in the field of bioremediation. MES is a green remediation approach that is regulated by electrochemically active microorganisms at the electrode in the system. The key advantage of the system over the conventional methods is it does not involve any additional chemicals, takes less time, and generates minimal sludge or waste during the remediation of PAHs in soils. However, a comprehensive review of the MES towards bioremediation of PAHs adsorbed in soil and sediment is still lacking. Therefore, the present review intended to summarize the recent information on PAHs bioremediation, application, risks, benefits, and challenges based on sediment microbial fuel cell and microbial fuel cell to remediate mount-up industrial sludge, soil, and sediment rich in PAHs. Additionally, bio-electrochemically active microbes, mechanisms, and future perspectives of MES have been discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support by the laboratory “Soil Health” of the Southern Federal University with the financial support of the Ministry of Science and higher Education of the Russian Federal, agreement no. 075-15-2022-1122.

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  1. CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Vishvigyan Bhawan, 31 Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, 226001, India

    Smita Kumari

  2. Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, 344006

    Vishnu D. Rajput, Svetlana Sushkova & Tatiana Minkina

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SK, VDR, SS, and TM: have been involved in idea generation and were involved in manuscript preparation. All the authors reviewed and edited the content.

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Kumari, S., Rajput, V.D., Sushkova, S. et al. Microbial electrochemical system: an emerging technology for remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from soil and sediments. Environ Geochem Health 45, 9451–9467 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01356-z

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