Performance evaluation of a hybrid system for efficient palm oil mill effluent treatment via an air-cathode, tubular upflow microbial fuel cell coupled with a granular activated carbon adsorption.
An air-cathode MFC-adsorption hybrid system, made from earthen pot was designed and tested for simultaneous wastewater treatment and energy recovery. Such design had demonstrated superior characteristics of low internal resistance (29.3Ω) and favor to low-cost, efficient wastewater treatment and power generation (55mW/m(3)) with average current of 2.13±0.4mA. The performance between MFC-adsorption hybrid system was compared to the standalone adsorption system and results had demonstrated great pollutants removals of the integrated system especially for chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD3), total organic carbon (TOC), total volatile solids (TVS), ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3-N) and total nitrogen (TN) because such system combines the advantages of each individual unit. Besides the typical biological and electrochemical processes that happened in an MFC system, an additional physicochemical process from the activated carbon took place simultaneously in the MFC-adsorption hybrid system which would further improved on the wastewater quality.
Department of Chemical Engineering and Energy Sustainability, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia.
Pei-Fang
PF
Tee
Department of Chemical Engineering and Energy Sustainability, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia. Electronic address: amomar13@gmail.com.
Mohammad Omar
MO
Abdullah
Department of Chemical Engineering and Energy Sustainability, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia.
Ivy Ai Wei
IA
Tan
Department of Chemical Engineering and Energy Sustainability, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia.
Mohamed Afizal
MA
Mohamed Amin
Department of Chemical Engineering and Energy Sustainability, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia.
Cirilo
C
Nolasco-Hipolito
Faculty of Resource Science & Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia.
Kopli
K
Bujang
D000327:Adsorption; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D004566:Electrodes; D009584:Nitrogen; D000073878:Palm Oil; D010938:Plant Oils / Q000737:chemistry*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen; D000073878:Palm Oil; D010938:Plant Oils; D062065:Wastewater
Adsorption; Affordable cost; Bioenergy; Hybrid wastewater treatment system; Microbial fuel cell