title: Recovery of nitrogen and water from landfill leachate by a microbial electrolysis cell-forward osmosis system.
abstract: A microbial electrolysis cell (MEC)-forward osmosis (FO) system was previously reported for recovering ammonium and water from synthetic solutions, and here it has been advanced with treating landfill leachate. In the MEC, 65.7±9.1% of ammonium could be recovered in the presence of cathode aeration. Without aeration, the MEC could remove 54.1±10.9% of ammonium from the leachate, but little ammonia was recovered. With 2M NH4HCO3 as the draw solution, the FO process achieved 51% water recovery from the MEC anode effluent in 3.5-h operation, higher than that from the raw leachate. The recovered ammonia was used as a draw solute in the FO for successful water recovery from the treated leachate. Despite the challenges with treating returning solution from the FO, this MEC-FO system has demonstrated the potential for resource recovery from wastes, and provide a new solution for sustainable leachate management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Mohan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Platteville, WI 53818, United States.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Molitor
authors.affiliation: Waste Management, Gaithersburg, MD 20882, United States.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brazil
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
authors.forename: John T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Novak
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States. Electronic address: zhenhe@vt.edu.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia; D064751:Ammonium Compounds; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D004560:Electricity; D004566:Electrodes; D004572:Electrolysis; D004867:Equipment Design; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D009584:Nitrogen; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry; D009995:Osmosis; D012996:Solutions; D013696:Temperature; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D064751:Ammonium Compounds; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D012996:Solutions; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D014867:Water; D000641:Ammonia; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: Ammonium bicarbonate; Ammonium recovery; Forward osmosis; Landfill leachate; Microbial electrolysis cells