title: A combined system of microbial fuel cell and intermittently aerated biological filter for energy self-sufficient wastewater treatment.
abstract: Energy self-sufficiency is a highly desirable goal of sustainable wastewater treatment. Herein, a combined system of a microbial fuel cell and an intermittently aerated biological filter (MFC-IABF) was designed and operated in an energy self-sufficient manner. The system was fed with synthetic wastewater (COD = 1000 mg L(-1)) in continuous mode for more than 3 months at room temperature (~25 °C). Voltage output was increased to 5 ± 0.4 V using a capacitor-based circuit. The MFC produced electricity to power the pumping and aeration systems in IABF, concomitantly removing COD. The IABF operating under an intermittent aeration mode (aeration rate 1000 ± 80 mL h(-1)) removed the residual nutrients and improved the water quality at HRT = 7.2 h. This two-stage combined system obtained 93.9% SCOD removal and 91.7% TCOD removal (effluent SCOD = 61 mg L(-1), TCOD = 82.8 mg L(-1)). Energy analysis indicated that the MFC unit produced sufficient energy (0.27 kWh m(-3)) to support the pumping system (0.014 kWh m(-3)) and aeration system (0.22 kWh m(-3)). These results demonstrated that the combined MFC-IABF system could be operated in an energy self-sufficient manner, resulting to high-quality effluent.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology. No 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology. No 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Yujie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology. No. 2 Yikuang Street, Nangang District, Harbin 150080, China.
authors.forename: Youpeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology. No 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology. No 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Xiangtong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology. No 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D004560:Electricity; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D062065:Wastewater; D018508:Water Purification / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D062065:Wastewater