title: Electricity and disinfectant production from wastewater: Microbial Fuel Cell as a self-powered electrolyser.
abstract: This study presents a simple and sustainable Microbial Fuel Cell as a standalone, self-powered reactor for in situ wastewater electrolysis, recovering nitrogen from wastewater. A process is proposed whereby the MFC electrical performance drives the electrolysis of wastewater towards the self-generation of catholyte within the same reactor. The MFCs were designed to harvest the generated catholyte in the internal chamber, which showed that liquid production rates are largely proportional to electrical current generation. The catholyte demonstrated bactericidal properties, compared to the control (open-circuit) diffusate, and reduced observable biofilm formation on the cathode electrode. Killing effects were confirmed using bacterial kill curves constructed by exposing a bioluminescent Escherichia coli target, as a surrogate coliform, to catholyte where a rapid kill rate was observed. Therefore, MFCs could serve as a water recovery system, a disinfectant/cleaner generator that limits undesired biofilm formation and as a washing agent in waterless urinals to improve sanitation. This simple and ready to implement MFC system can convert organic waste directly into electricity and self-driven nitrogen along with water recovery. This could lead to the development of energy positive bioprocesses for sustainable wastewater treatment.
authors.affiliation: Bristol BioEnergy Centre, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, UK.
authors.forename: Iwona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gajda
authors.affiliation: Bristol BioEnergy Centre, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, UK.|Biological, Biomedical and Analytical Sciences, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, UK.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Greenman
authors.affiliation: Bristol BioEnergy Centre, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, UK.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Melhuish
authors.affiliation: Bristol BioEnergy Centre, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, UK.|Biological, Biomedical and Analytical Sciences, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, UK.
authors.forename: Ioannis A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Ieropoulos