Abstract
Environmental issues related to water and sanitation are fundamental human and environmental concerns worldwide. Wastewater root sources are important when considering surface and groundwater bodies or streams pollution, and thus disinfection scenarios. The study explores a novel concept of employing multiple anodes with a constructed wetland system to increase the treatment capacity of microbial fuel cells (MFCs), as well as evaluated the capacity of a multiple-anode/cathode single-chamber continuous flow microbial fuel cell (CFMFC) to degrade a high amount of organic matter effectively, and concurrently produce bioelectricity. Two parallel continuous-flow MFCs (duplicates) were built with carbon felts as the electrodes, containing multiple anodes and a cathode. An aeration pump was utilized to increase oxygen transfer, which proved to promote electron collection, conductivity, and microorganism attachment when constructing the biofilm. The performance of the system was investigated at different organic loading rates (600-950 mgCOD/L). The results reveal good COD removal efficiencies (86.6% at 600 mgCOD/L and 75.8% at 800 mgCOD/L in the first cycle, 80.2% at 700 mgCOD/L and 71.2% at 950 mgCOD/L in the second cycle). Ammonium-N removal was maximum up to 81±2.0% and 79±2.2% in reactor 1, and 78±2.8% and 75±2.7% in reactor 2. The TP removal efficiencies were 43.2±2.0%, 41.4±2.2%, 39.8±2.8%, and 37.1±3.7%. Maximum power density was 92.1 mW/m³ in Reactor 1 and 85.28 mW/m³ in Reactor 2.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Multi-anode electrodes; Microbial fuel cells; Constructed wetlands; Wastewater treatment; Bio-electricity
