Harnessing Bioelectrochemical and Anaerobic Systems for the Degradation of Bioplastics: Application Potential and Future Directions

Abstract

As the environmental burden of traditional plastics continues to grow, bioplastics (BPs) have emerged as a promising alternative due to their renewable origins and potential for biodegradability. However, the most popular anaerobic systems (ASs)—anaerobic digestion (AD), acidogenic fermentation (AF), and enzyme hydrolysis (EH)—for BPs degradation still face many challenges, e.g., low degradation efficiency, process instability, etc. As a sustainable clean energy technology, bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) have demonstrated strong potential in the treatment of complex organic waste when integrated with ASs. Nevertheless, research on the synergistic degradation of BPs using BES-ASs remains relatively limited. This review systematically summarizes commonly used anaerobic degradation methods for BPs, along with their advantages and limitations, and highlights the BES-AS as an innovative strategy to enhance BPs degradation efficiency. BESs can accelerate the decomposition of complex polymer structures through the activity of electroactive microorganisms, while also offering benefits such as energy recovery and real-time process monitoring. When coupled with anaerobic digestion, the BES-AS demonstrates significant synergistic effects, improving degradation efficiency and promoting the production of high-value-added products such as volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and biogas, thereby showing great application potential. This review outlines current research progress, identifies key knowledge gaps in mechanism elucidation, system design, source recovery, etc., and proposes future research directions. These include system optimization, microbial community engineering, development of advanced electrode materials, and omics-based mechanistic studies. Advancing multidisciplinary integration is expected to accelerate the practical application of BES-ASs in BP waste management and contribute to achieving the goals of sustainability, efficiency, and circular utilization.

Key findings

• ▸Bioelectrochemical systems can accelerate the decomposition of complex polymer structures in bioplastics.
• ▸Anaerobic digestion, acidogenic fermentation, and enzyme hydrolysis have limitations in degrading bioplastics.
• ▸The integration of bioelectrochemical systems with anaerobic systems can improve degradation efficiency and recover energy.

Keywords

Identifiers

DOI

10.3390/fermentation11110610

Journal

Fermentation

Year

2025