Electricity generation and brewery wastewater treatment from sequential anode-cathode microbial fuel cell.
A sequential anode-cathode double-chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC), in which the effluent of anode chamber was used as a continuous feed for an aerated cathode chamber, was constructed in this experiment to investigate the performance of brewery wastewater treatment in conjugation with electricity generation. Carbon fiber was used as anode and plain carbon felt with biofilm as cathode. When hydraulic retention time (HRT) was 14.7 h, a relatively high chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of 91.7%-95.7% was achieved under long-term stable operation. The MFC displayed an open circuit voltage of 0.434 V and a maximum power density of 830 mW/m(3) at an external resistance of 300 Omega. To estimate the electrochemical performance of the MFC, electrochemical measurements were carried out and showed that polarization resistance of anode was the major limiting factor in the MFC. Since a high COD removal efficiency was achieved, we conclude that the sequential anode-cathode MFC constructed with bio-cathode in this experiment could provide a new approach for brewery wastewater treatment.
Wen
Qing
Q
College of Material Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. wenqing_hrbeu@yahoo.com.cn
Wu
Ying
Y
Zhao
Li-xin
LX
Sun
Qian
Q
Kong
Fan-ying
FY
D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D019149:Bioreactors; D004560:Electricity; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques; D004867:Equipment Design; D007220:Industrial Waste; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods
D007220:Industrial Waste; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical