A horizontal plug flow and stackable pilot microbial fuel cell for municipal wastewater treatment

• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2013.12.104
• Publication Date: 2014-01-03T13:04:33Z
• Authors: Yujie Feng; Weihua He; Jia Liu; Xin Wang; Youpeng Qu; Nanqi Ren
• Keywords: Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; China; Sewage; Bioelectric Energy Sources; Pilot Projects; Wastewater; 7. Clean energy; 01 natural sciences; 6. Clean water; Water Purification; 12. Responsible consumption; Electricity; 11. Sustainability; Costs and Cost Analysis; Cities; Electrodes; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

An application-oriented stackable horizontal MFC (SHMFC) was designed and proved to be capable for sewage treatment and simultaneously energy recovery. The system consisted of multiple stackable 250L modules, which is the largest single MFC module by far. Domestic wastewater was fed into SHMFC in horizontal advection. During the stable operation period, a maximum current 0.435±0.010A in each module was observed under the external resistance of 1Ω and the maximum power density was 116mW. The effluent COD was 70±17mgL(-1) with a removal rate of 79±7% and the effluent TN was 13±3mgL(-1) with a removal rate of 71±8%. From the comparison between SHMFC module (250L) and 4-cm cubic MFC (28mL), the internal resistance distribution changes and the contact resistance becomes assignable and even limiting factor in the enlargement.