title: A novel pilot-scale stacked microbial fuel cell for efficient electricity generation and wastewater treatment.
abstract: A novel stacked microbial fuel cell (MFC) which had a total volume of 72 L with granular activated carbon (GAC) packed bed electrodes was constructed and verified to present remarkable power generation and COD removal performance due to its advantageous design of stack and electrode configuration. During the fed-batch operation period, a power density of 50.9 ± 1.7 W/m(3) and a COD removal efficiency of 97% were achieved within 48 h. Because of the differences among MFC modules in the stack, reversal current occurred in parallel circuit connection with high external resistances (>100 Ω). This reversal current consequently reduced the electrochemical performance of some MFC modules and led to a lower power density in parallel circuit connection than that in independent circuit connection. While increasing the influent COD concentrations from 200 to 800 mg/L at hydraulic retention time of 1.25 h in continuous operation mode, the power density of stacked MFC increased from 25.6 ± 2.5 to 42.1 ± 1.2 W/m(3) and the COD removal rates increased from 1.3 to 5.2 kg COD/(m(3) d). This study demonstrated that this novel MFC stack configuration coupling with GAC packed bed electrode could be a feasible strategy to effectively scale up MFC systems.
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
authors.forename: Shijia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
authors.forename: Xuechen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China. Electronic address: liangpeng@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China. Electronic address: xhuang@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D019149:Bioreactors; D004560:Electricity; D004566:Electrodes; D062065:Wastewater
chemical_list: D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Activated carbon electrode; Microbial fuel cell; Organic removal; Power generation; Stack configuration