Electrochemical In Situ Hydrogen Peroxide Production Can Reduce Microbial Load in Bioponic Nutrient Solutions Derived from Organic Waste

Lukas Simon Kriem (), Carsten Pietzka, Marc Beckett, Luisa Gärtling and Benjamin Wriedt
Additional contact information
Lukas Simon Kriem: Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Nobelstr. 12, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Carsten Pietzka: Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Nobelstr. 12, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Marc Beckett: Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Nobelstr. 12, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Luisa Gärtling: Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Nobelstr. 12, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Benjamin Wriedt: Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Nobelstr. 12, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: Technological advancement in recent decades has allowed for crop cultivation in soilless controlled environments, known as hydroponics, and this is being employed in an increasing number of factories worldwide. With continued local and regional disruptions in the supply chain to provide mineral fertilizers, new pathways to generate nutrient solutions are being developed. One potential approach is the recovery of nutrients from organic waste and wastewater using bioponics. Bioponics refers to the biological mineralization of organic residues through processes such as anaerobic and aerobic digestion and the use of such organically produced nutrient solutions in hydroponic systems. However, without disinfection of the nutrient solution, the high microbial loads increase the risk of pathogens affecting plant and consumer health. In this work, electrochemical hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) demonstrated success in reducing microbial loads. Different scenarios of application were considered: (1) variation in the H 2 O 2 concentration in the nutrient solution by dosing H 2 O 2 from ex situ electrochemical production, (2) variation in the dosing time-dependent reaction between the nutrient solution and H 2 O 2 produced ex situ, and (3) the in situ production of H 2 O 2 of the organic nutrient solution. The highest tested H 2 O 2 concentration of 200 mg L −1 showed a microbial load reduction of bacteria at 93.3% and of fungi at 81.2%. However, the in situ production showed the highest reduction rate for bacteria and fungi in bioponic nutrient solutions, where longer reaction times also impact microbial concentrations in situ. Final microbial reductions of 97.8% for bacteria and of 99.1% for fungi were determined after a H 2 O 2 production time of 60 min. Overall, our results show that electrochemical H 2 O 2 production can be used to disinfect bioponic nutrient solutions, and the production cell can be implemented in bioponic systems in situ.

Keywords: soilless agriculture; bioponics; organic waste recycling; disinfection; electrochemical H 2 O 2 production; hydrogen peroxide treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/11/2122/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/11/2122/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:11:p:2122-:d:1277889

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().