A review of autotrophic denitrification for groundwater remediation: a special focus on bioelectrochemical reactors

Ortega-Martínez, Eduardo and Toledo-Alarcón, Javiera and Fernández, Edel and Campos, José Luis and Oyarzún, Ricardo and Etchebehere, Claudia and Cardeña, René and Cabezas, Angela and Koók, László and Bakonyi, Péter and Magdalena, José Antonio and Trably, Eric and Bernet, Nicolas and Jeison, David (2024) A review of autotrophic denitrification for groundwater remediation: a special focus on bioelectrochemical reactors. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, 12 (1). No. 111552. ISSN 2213-3437

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Abstract

Groundwater is an important resource that can help in climate change adaptation. However, the pollution of these aquifers with nitrate is a widespread problem of growing concern. Biological denitrification using inorganic electron donors shows significant advantages in treating nitrate-polluted groundwater where organic matter presence is negligible. However, mass transfer limitations and secondary contamination seem to be the major hinderance to spread the use of these technologies. This could be solved by the use of bioelectrochemical systems (BES), which emerge as an attractive technology to solve these problems due to the reported low energy demand and high denitrification rates. However, technical and operational issues must be considered to replicate these results at full-scale. This review summarizes the biological basis of autotrophic denitrification and the key aspects of its application in bioelectrochemical systems. In addition, an estimation of the capital costs required for the implementation of a BES considering different population sizes and initial nitrate concentration in the groundwater is made.

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