title: Efficient removal of nitrobenzene and concomitant electricity production by single-chamber microbial fuel cells with activated carbon air-cathode.
abstract: Single-chamber microbial fuel cells (S-MFCs) with bio-anodes and activated carbon (AC) air-cathodes showed high nitrobenzene (NB) tolerance and NB removal with concomitant electricity production. The maximum power over 25Wm-3could be obtained when S-MFCs were operated in the NB loading range of 1.2-6.2molm-3d-1, and stable electricity production over 13.7Wm-3could be produced in a NB loading range of 1.2-14.7molm-3d-1. The present S-MFCs exhibited high NB removal performance with NB removal efficiency over 97% even when the NB loading rate was increased to 17.2molm-3d-1. The potential NB reduced product (i.e. aniline) could also be effectively removed from influents. The findings in this study means that single-chamber MFCs assembled with pre-enriched bio-anodes and AC air-cathodes could be developed as effective bio-electrochemical systems to remove NB from wastewaters and to harvest energy instead of consuming energy.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou City 225002, China. Electronic address: babyphotomail@qq.com.
authors.forename: Enren
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou City 225002, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou City 225002, China.
authors.forename: Wenjing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE1 7RU, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou City 225002, China.
authors.forename: Guowang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Diao
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D002606:Charcoal; D004560:Electricity; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D009578:Nitrobenzenes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002606:Charcoal; D009578:Nitrobenzenes; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C036077:nitrobenzene
keywords: Activated carbon air-cathode; Bio-electrochemical system; Microbial fuel cells; Nitrobenzene removal