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In this work, the bioelectrochemical system (BES) is a feasible alternative for successfully degrading typical refractory emerging contaminant triclosan (TCS). A single-chamber BES reactor with an initial TCS concentration of 1 mg/L, an applied voltage of 0.8 V, and a solution buffered with 50 mM PBS degraded 81.4 ± 0.2% of TCS, exhibiting TCS degradation efficiency improvement to 90.6 ± 0.2% with a biocathode formed from a reversed bioanode. Both bioanode and biocathode were able to degrade TCS with comparable efficiencies of 80.8 ± 4.9% and 87.3 ± 0.4%, respectively. Dechlorination and hydrolysis were proposed as the TCS degradation pathway in the cathode chamber, and another hydroxylation pathway was exclusive in the anode chamber. Microbial community structure analysis indicated Propionibacteriaceae was the predominant member in all electrode biofilms, and the exoelectrogen Geobacter was enriched in anode biofilms. This study comprehensively revealed the feasibility of operating BES technology for TCS degradation., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The exponential rise in energy demand vis-à-vis depletion of mineral oil resources has accelerated recovery of bioenergy from organic waste. In this study, a laboratory-scale anaerobic (An)/aerobic (Ar) system comprising of expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor coupled to an aerobic sequential batch reactor (SBR) was constructed to treat beet sugar industrial wastewater (BSIW) of chemical oxygen demand (COD) 1665 mg L -1 while harnessing methane gas. The EGSB reactor generated methane at the rate of 235 mL/g COD added, with considerably higher than previously reported methane content of 86 %. Meanwhile, contaminants were successfully reduced in the combined An/Ar system, realizing a removal rate of more than 71.4, 97.3, 97.7, and 99.3 % of organic matter as total phosphorus, total nitrogen, biological oxygen demand (BOD), and soluble COD, respectively. Microbial community analysis showed that the bacterial genus Clostridium sp. and archaeal genus Methanosaeta sp. dominated the EGSB reactor, while Rhodobacter sp. dominance was observed in the SBR. The obtained experimental results indicate that the integration of expanded granular sludge bed and sequential batch reactor in treating BSIW obtained competitively outstanding performance.