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Economics of Microbial Electrolytic Carbon Capture (MECC)
Microbial Electrolytic Carbon Capture (MECC) has yet to be implemented in present wastewater plants, therefore economic cost and benefits are current projections based on research of the technology rather than operational data. Lu et al. 2015 summarize the potential economic benefits of MECC use in their 2015 article in which they define the method of MECC. Their results estimate a “$48 per ton CO2 mitigated” net cost for MECC technology applied to wastewater plants. The Lu et al. estimation factors in the parasitic energy costs, operational costs and initial capital required to perform MECC, as well as potential cost offsets such as revenue due to water treatment, H2 production, and reduction in fossil fuel consumption for commercial manufacturing of H2 and treatment of wastewater.

The projected net cost of $48 per ton of mitigated CO2 is lower than estimated costs for pulverized coal power plant post-combustion carbon capture absorption using MEA and geologic sequestration ($65/t-CO2), which is currently the most prolific Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) technique. The MECC cost projection is also lower than the cost of many other CCS technologies: the direct air CO2 capture methods (about $1000/t-CO2), the Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technique ($60-250/t-CO2) , the abiotic electrolytic dissolution of silicate method ($86/t-CO2) , and the pulverized coal power plant carbon capture by absorption and membrane techniques ($70-270/t-CO2). The economics of MECC approach to carbon capture will benefit from future investigation in optimizing design and materials used. Further research is needed to predict the scope of costs and setbacks related to engineering and running a functional MECC system within current wastewater plants.

Critics of MECC discuss inefficiencies of the process, materials, and complications that may result in economic losses. Although MECC is projected to be cheaper than other existing carbon capture techniques, it is substantially more expensive (on the order of 800 times more expensive) than present wastewater treatment technology and therefore faces a substantial barrier to implementation in public and private wastewater treatment plants. Furthermore, the efficiency of Microbial Fuel Cell technology, which is analogous to the microbial system used within MECC, has been criticized for its unpredictability due to relying upon the chemical and nutrient content of varying wastewater as well as the health of living microbes. Inefficient MFCs lead to greater costs as cost offset fluctuates with departure from maximum efficiency of the system.