The Integrated Approach of Sulfide Removal from Substrate for Biogas Production with the Simultaneous Production of Electricity

.Sulfide are frequently met in natural mineral water and in different waste water streams. The consequent water treatment or utilization and strongly impeded by this fact. The sulfide removal or at least reduction can be accomplished in different ways but there is one straightforward method. It consists in capturing sulfide on carbon-based sorbent with the consequent sorbent regeneration producing electricity in a liquid fuel cell mode. Hence, there is multiple effect of sulfide removal and utilization as energy combined with water pre-treatment for various purposes. The present study demonstrates this idea for the case of sulfide containing mineral waters and waste streams from alcohol and beverage manufacturing to be used for biogas production. The experiments were made in a liquid phase fuel cell. The electrode compartments were separated by anion-exchange membrane. Electroconductive charcoal, produced by pyrolysis of sunflower seed husks and doped by zinc oxide was used as sorbent and electrode. The yield of biogas produced from vinasse was increased up to four times for treated substrate compared to the reference case. The experiments of treatment of natural water for sulfide removal by this method shows sustainable performance of the sorbent for up to twelve consecutive runs.