Sustainable wastewater treatment: How might microbial fuel cells contribute

Oh, Sungtaek; Kim, Eun Jung; Premier, Giuliano C.; Lee, Tae Ho; Kim, Changwon; Sloan, William T.

doi:10.1016/j.biotechadv.2010.07.008

Cited by 290 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 103 publications

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“…The formation of a productive anode community able to digest waste organics and liberate electrons is required for successful application. Although community assembly is poorly understood in the microbial world in general and in BES in particular [1] it might be reasonable to assume that it is affected by both the temperature, substrate and inocula [2,3]. These have been studied independently within BES research, but not consolidated within one study where direct comparisons can be made.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temperature, inocula and substrate: Contrasting electroactive consortia, diversity and performance in microbial fuel cells

Heidrich

Dolfing

Wade

et al. 2018

Bioelectrochemistry

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The factors that affect microbial community assembly and its effects on the performance of bioelectrochemical systems are poorly understood. Sixteen microbial fuel cell (MFC) reactors were set up to test the importance of inoculum, temperature and substrate: Arctic soil versus wastewater as inoculum; warm (26.5°C) versus cold (7.5°C) temperature; and acetate versus wastewater as substrate. Substrate was the dominant factor in determining performance and diversity: unexpectedly the simple electrogenic substrate delivered a higher diversity than a complex wastewater. Furthermore, in acetate fed reactors, diversity did not correlate with performance, yet in wastewater fed ones it did, with greater diversity sustaining higher power densities and coulombic efficiencies. Temperature had only a minor effect on power density, (Q 10 : 2 and 1.2 for acetate and wastewater respectively): this is surprising given the well-known temperature sensitivity of anaerobic bioreactors. Reactors were able to operate at low temperature with real wastewater without the need for specialised inocula; it is speculated that MFC biofilms may have a self-heating effect. Importantly, the warm acetate fed reactors in this study did not act as direct model for cold wastewater fed systems. Application of this technology will encompass use of real wastewater at ambient temperatures.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study focuses on one specific type of BES, the Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) [1,[4][5]. There were two explicit hypotheses: firstly, the use of an arctic soil as an inoculum would enhance the low temperature performance of an MFC relative to one started with a conventional inoculum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature, inocula and substrate: Contrasting electroactive consortia, diversity and performance in microbial fuel cells

Heidrich

Dolfing

Wade

et al. 2018

Bioelectrochemistry

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“…MFCs are considered an energy-saving technology due to their needless of aeration or temperature maintenance, and their low excess sludge generation compared to the conventional activated sludge process (Rozendal et al, 2008a;Oh et al, 2010;He, 2013). Only about 0.024 kW or 0.076 kWh/kg-COD on average (mainly for reactor feeding and mixing) was estimated to be consumed in MFCs (Zhang F. et al, 2013b), compared to about 0.3 kW or 0.6 kWh/kg-COD for the activated sludge-based aerobic process (McCarty et al, 2011).…”

Section: Mfcs For Sustainable Wastewater Treatment: Opportunities Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Great challenges from low power output, high capital cost, and other system limitations exist and need to be overcome. There have been many excellent review papers published regarding the application of MFCs in wastewater treatment (Du et al, 2007;Rismani-Yazdi et al, 2008;Rozendal et al, 2008a;Logan, 2010;Pant et al, 2010;Oh et al, 2010;Lefebvre et al, 2011;Li et al, 2014). In this perspective, we will focus on the important opportunities and challenges of MFCs for sustainable wastewater treatment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

从废水中回收能量的微生物燃料电池技术: 走向实际应用的机遇和挑战

Liu

Cheng

2014

J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. A

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Abstract:Much energy is stored in wastewaters. How to efficiently capture this energy is of great significance for meeting the world's energy needs, reducing wastewater handling costs and increasing the sustainability of wastewater treatment. The microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a recently developed biotechnology for electrical energy recovery from the organic pollutants in wastewaters. MFCs hold great promise for sustainable wastewater treatment. However, at present there is still much research needed before the MFC technique can be practically applied in the real world. In this review, we analyze the opportunities and key challenges for MFCs to achieve sustainability in wastewater treatment. We especially discuss the problems and challenges for scaling up the MFC systems; this is the most critical issue for realizing the practical implementation of this technique. In order to achieve sustainability, MFCs may also be combined with other techniques to yield high effluent quality or to recover more commercial value (i.e., by producing energy-rich or high value chemicals) from wastewaters. However, research in this area is still on-going and many problems need to be settled before real-world application. Advances are required in respect of efficiency, economic feasibility, system stability, and reliability.

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“…It was estimated that the energy content embedded in wastewater is estimated about 2-4 times the energy used for its treatment, so it is possible to make wastewater treatment self-sufficient, if new technologies can recover the energy, while simultaneously achieving treatment objectives. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) recently emerged as a novel technology to fulfill this mission because they directly convert biodegradable materials into renewable energy with minimal sludge production [3]. MFCs employ exoelectrogenic bacteria to extract electrons from organic and inorganic substrates and transfer them to the anode to the cathode, where they then combine with oxygen and protons to produce water [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy and Performance Comparison of Microbial Fuel Cell and Conventional Aeration Treating of Wastewater

Huggins

Fallgren

Jin

et al. 2013

J Microbial Biochem Technol

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Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology provides a low cost alternative to conventional aerated wastewater treatment, however, there has been little comparison between MFC and aeration treatment using real wastewater as the substrate. This study attempts to directly compare the wastewater treatment efficiency and energy consumption and generation among three reactor systems-a traditional aeration process, a simple submerged MFC configuration, and a control reactor acting similar as natural lagoons. Results showed that all three systems were able to remove >90% of COD, but the aeration used shorter time (8 days) than the MFC (10 days) and control reactor (25 days). Compared to aeration, the MFC showed lower removal efficiency in high COD concentration, but much higher efficiency when the COD is low. Only the aeration system showed complete nitrification during the operation, reflected by completed ammonia removal and nitrate accumulation. Suspended solid measurements showed that MFC reduced sludge production by 52-82% as compared to aeration, and it also saved 100% of aeration energy. Furthermore, though not designed for high power generation, the MFC reactor showed a 0.3 Wh/g COD/L or 24 Wh/m 3 (wastewater treated) net energy gain in electricity generation. These results demonstrate that MFC technology could be integrated into wastewater infrastructure to meet effluent quality and save operational cost.

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Sustainable wastewater treatment: How might microbial fuel cells contribute

Cited by 290 publications

References 103 publications

Temperature, inocula and substrate: Contrasting electroactive consortia, diversity and performance in microbial fuel cells

Temperature, inocula and substrate: Contrasting electroactive consortia, diversity and performance in microbial fuel cells

从废水中回收能量的微生物燃料电池技术: 走向实际应用的机遇和挑战

Energy and Performance Comparison of Microbial Fuel Cell and Conventional Aeration Treating of Wastewater

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