Babanova S, Jones J, Phadke S, Lu M, Angulo C, Garcia J, Carpenter K, Cortese R, Chen S, Phan T, Bretschger O. Continuous flow, large-scale, microbial fuel cell system for the sustained treatment of swine waste.
WATER ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH : A RESEARCH PUBLICATION OF THE WATER ENVIRONMENT FEDERATION 2020;
92:60-72. [PMID:
31306532 DOI:
10.1002/wer.1183]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2019] [Revised: 06/25/2019] [Accepted: 06/29/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have long held the promise of being a cost-effective technology for the energy-neutral treatment of wastewater. However, successful pilot-scale demonstrations for this technology are still limited to very few. Here, we present a large-scale MFC system, composed of 12 MFCs with a total volume of 110 L, successfully treating swine wastewater at a small educational farm. The system was operated for over 200 days in continuous mode with hydraulic residence time of 4 hr. Very stable electrochemical and waste treatment performance was observed with up to 65% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removed and a maximum treatment rate of 5.0 kg COD/m3 .day. Robust microbial enrichment was performed and adapted to metabolize and transform a diversity of compounds present. The Net Energy Recovery (NER = 0.11 kWhr/kg COD) is not only competitive with conventional cogeneration processes, but is in fact sufficient to sustain the operational energy requirements of the system. PRACTITIONER POINTS: This study demonstrates the design and operation of a large-scale microbial fuel cells (MFC) system for continuous treatment of swine wastewater. The system achieved a high chemical oxygen demand removal rate within a short hydraulic residence time. This study moves one-step closer to applying MFC technology for real wastewater treatment.
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