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Summary
The exponential demand for energy and the environmental pollution that results from the reliance
on fossil fuels represent a great challenge to humanity. Additionally, great volumes of wastes such
as food waste, agricultural waste and animal manure can be generated annually and require proper
management. Traditional management approaches of solid wastes such as landfilling, and
incineration can contaminate soil, air and groundwater. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a technique
that can harness natural resources (e.g., biomass waste) to generate biogas and digestate. The
generated biogas can be used as an energy source and digestate can be employed as a biofertilizer
and replace chemical fertilizers. The mono-digestion of wastes cannot achieve efficient anaerobic
digestion due to the unsuitable C/N ratio. In this work, the co-digestion by adding different wastes
in anaerobic digestion process can be attained to achieve high biogas production rate due to the
appropriate C/N ratio, balanced nutrients, and high buffer capacity. The generated methane from
the anaerobic digestion process has lower energy content compared to hydrogen. Additionally, the
produced biogas includes some impurities (e.g., H2S) which requires separation. Traditional
techniques used for the production of H2 such as steam reforming of methane, coal gasification
and partial oxidation have some shortcomings such as the release of high volumes of greenhouse
gases and the high energy consumption. Thus, in the proposed work, microbial electrolysis cell
can be integrated in anaerobic digestion process (AD-MEC) to efficiently reduce solids, generate
H2 and improve the efficiency and stability. In the hybrid system, low voltage can be applied to
AD leading to the oxidation of organic waste via the anodic bacterial consortia and the generation
of protons and electrons. Then, electrons can be transferred to the cathode electrode via the circuit
wire to generate H2 at the cathode. Further, an ion exchange membrane will be introduced to MEC
to achieve the charge balance and prevent the consumption of the generated H2 by methanogens,
thereby maximizing the production rate of hydrogen. Different electrode materials will be tested
to specify the best electrode material. Different doses of biochar prepared from agricultural wastes
will be added to AD-MEC to show the effect of biochar on hydrogen production rate. On the other
hand, the discharged digestate from AD-MEC will be characterized to check its properties to be
used as a biofertilizer for improving the soil quality. A feasibility study will be performed to check
the profitability of the hybrid system. The expected low-cost, high H2 production rate, maximum
solid reduction and profits via microbial electrolysis cell coupled with anaerobic digestion can
encourage decision makers to apply this technique on a wider scale to overcome the problems of
energy and waste management. -
Achievements
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List of Publications from the Project
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Partners
- Prof. Cesar Torres,
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Project Members
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Project Leaders
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Project PI
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Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
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Research Group
Egypt Solid Waste Management Center of Excellence
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Funding Agency
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
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Funding Program
Development Innovation Ventures
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Start Date
2023-12-01
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End Date
2025-12-01
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Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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Project website