Analysis of electrode microbial communities in an up-flow bioelectrochemical system treating azo dye wastewater

Bioelectrochemical system (BES) is a rapidly developing technology covering contamination remediation, resource recovery and power generation. Electrode biofilms play a key role in BES operation. In this work, a single chamber up-flow bioelectrochemical system (UBES) was assembled with two preinoculated anodes and two raw cathodes for azo dye wastewater treatment. Microbial community structures of these electrodes after long-term operation (more than 200 days) were carried out by high-throughput Illumina 16S rRNA gene MiSeq sequencing platform. Microorganisms belonging to Enterobacter, Desulfovibrio and Enterococcus, which are capable of bidirectional extracellular electron transfer, were found to be the dominant members in all biofilms. Neither the polarity nor the position of the electrodes obviously altered the microbial community structures. This study provides a feasible strategy to build electrode active biofilms in a BES for azo dye wastewater treatment and gives great inspirations to bring this technology closer to application.