title: Integration of a microbial fuel cell with activated sludge process for energy-saving wastewater treatment: taking a sequencing batch reactor as an example.
abstract: In the research and application of microbial fuel cell (MFC), how to incorporate MFCs into current wastewater infrastructure is an importance issue. Here, we report a novel strategy of integrating an MFC into a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) to test the energy production and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. The membrane-less biocathode MFC is integrated with the SBR to recover energy from the aeration in the form of electricity and thus reduce the SBR operation costs. In a lab-scale integrated SBR-MFC system, the maximum power production of the MFC was 2.34 W/m(3) for one typical cycle and the current density reached up to 14 A/m(3) . As a result, the MFC contributed to the 18.7% COD consumption of the integrated system and also recovered energy from the aeration tank with a volume fraction of only 12% of the SBR. Our strategy provides a feasible and effective energy-saving and -recovering solution to upgrade the existing activated sludge processes.
authors.affiliation: School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Xian-Wei
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yong-Peng
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yu-Xi
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xue-Fei
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Guo-Ping
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.forename: Raymond J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Shu-Guang
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhong-Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Han-Qing
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology; D004560:Electricity; D004867:Equipment Design; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage