Abstract
A double-chambered biocathode microbial fuel cell with carbon felt employed as electrodes was developed for wastewater treatment and bioelectricity generation simultaneously. The system was operated in fed-batch mode for over eight batches. The effect of circuit connections on organic and nitrate reduction was investigated. The maximum power density recorded was 21.97 mW/m2 at current density of 88.57 mA/m2. The Coulombic efficiency and internal resistance of the system were 5% and 100 Ω. Up to 89.9 ± 5.9% of chemical oxygen demand reduction efficiency achieved with an influent of 1123 ± 28 mg/L. There was no significant difference in the chemical oxygen demand reduction when system operated in either open or closed circuit. This study clearly showed that higher nitrate reduction efficiency obtained in closed circuit (74.7 ± 7.0%) due to bio-electrochemical denitrification compared to only 41.7% in the open circuit. The result also successfully demonstrated nitrate as terminal electron acceptor for the cathodic nitrate reduction.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aelterman P, Rabaey K, Clauwaert P, Verstraete W (2006) Microbial fuel cells for wastewater treatment. Water Sci Technol 54:9–15. doi:10.2166/wst.2006.702
Butti SK, Velvizhi G, Sulonen MLK et al (2016) Microbial electrochemical technologies with the perspective of harnessing bioenergy: maneuvering towards upscaling. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 53:462–476. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2015.08.058
Chae K-J, Choi M-J, Lee J-W et al (2009) Effect of different substrates on the performance, bacterial diversity, and bacterial viability in microbial fuel cells. Bioresour Technol 100:3518–3525. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2009.02.065
Fang C, Min B, Angelidaki I (2011) Nitrate as an oxidant in the cathode chamber of a microbial fuel cell for both power generation and nutrient removal purposes. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 164:464–474. doi:10.1007/s12010-010-9148-0
He Z (2013) Microbial fuel cells: now let us talk about energy. Environ Sci Technol 47:332–333. doi:10.1021/es304937e
Huang L, Regan JM, Quan X (2011) Electron transfer mechanisms, new applications, and performance of biocathode microbial fuel cells. Bioresour Technol 102:316–323. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.06.096
Jia YH, Tran HT, Kim DH et al (2008) Simultaneous organics removal and bio-electrochemical denitrification in microbial fuel cells. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 31:315–321. doi:10.1007/s00449-007-0164-6
Jiang D, Li B (2009) Granular activated carbon single-chamber microbial fuel cells (GAC-SCMFCs): a design suitable for large-scale wastewater treatment processes. Biochem Eng J 47:31–37. doi:10.1016/j.bej.2009.06.013
Kelly PT, He Z (2014) Nutrients removal and recovery in bioelectrochemical systems: a review. Bioresour Technol 153:351–360. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2013.12.046
Lefebvre O, Al-Mamun A, Ng HY (2008) A microbial fuel cell equipped with a biocathode for organic removal and denitrification. Water Sci Technol 58:881–885. doi:10.2166/wst.2008.343
Liang P, Huang X, Fan M-Z et al (2007) Composition and distribution of internal resistance in three types of microbial fuel cells. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 77:551–558. doi:10.1007/s00253-007-1193-4
Liu H, Ramnarayanan R, Logan BE (2004) Production of electricity during wastewater treatment using a single chamber microbial fuel cell. Environ Sci Technol 38:2281–2285. doi:10.1021/es034923g
Logan BE, Regan JM (2006) Microbial fuel cells: challenges and applications. Environ Sci Technol 40:5172–5180
Logan BE, Hamelers B, Rozendal R et al (2006) Microbial fuel cells: methodology and technology. Environ Sci Technol 40:5181–5192. doi:10.1021/es0605016
Low EW, Chase HA (1999) Reducing production of excess biomass during wastewater treatment. Water Res 33:1119–1132. doi:10.1016/S0043-1354(98)00325-X
Lu N, Zhou S, Zhuang L et al (2009) Electricity generation from starch processing wastewater using microbial fuel cell technology. Biochem Eng J 43:246–251. doi:10.1016/j.bej.2008.10.005
Min B, Kim J, Oh S et al (2005) Electricity generation from swine wastewater using microbial fuel cells. Water Res 39:4961–4968. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2005.09.039
Mook WT, Aroua MKT, Chakrabarti MH et al (2013) A review on the effect of bio-electrodes on denitrification and organic matter removal processes in bio-electrochemical systems. J Ind Eng Chem 19:1–13. doi:10.1016/j.jiec.2012.07.004
Nimje VR, Chen C-Y, Chen C-C et al (2011) Microbial fuel cell of Enterobacter cloacae: effect of anodic pH microenvironment on current, power density, internal resistance and electrochemical losses. Int J Hydrogen Energy 36:11093–11101. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.05.159
Pandit S, Ghosh S, Ghangrekar MM, Das D (2012) Performance of an anion exchange membrane in association with cathodic parameters in a dual chamber microbial fuel cell. Int J Hydrogen Energy 37:9383–9392. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.03.011
Rahimnejad M, Adhami A, Darvari S et al (2015) Microbial fuel cell as new technology for bioelectricity generation: a review. Alexandria Eng J 54:745–756. doi:10.1016/j.aej.2015.03.031
Ren L, Zhang X, He W, Logan BE (2014) High current densities enable exoelectrogens to outcompete aerobic heterotrophs for substrate. Biotechnol Bioeng 111:2163–2169. doi:10.1002/bit.25290
Rismani-Yazdi H, Carver SM, Christy AD, Tuovinen OH (2008) Cathodic limitations in microbial fuel cells: an overview. J Power Sources 180:683–694. doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2008.02.074
Rozendal RA, Hamelers HVM, Rabaey K et al (2008) Towards practical implementation of bioelectrochemical wastewater treatment. Trends Biotechnol 26:450–459. doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2008.04.008
Sharma V, Kundu PP (2010) Biocatalysts in microbial fuel cells. Enzyme Microb Technol 47:179–188. doi:10.1016/j.enzmictec.2010.07.001
Shehab N, Li D, Amy GL et al (2013) Characterization of bacterial and archaeal communities in air-cathode microbial fuel cells, open circuit and sealed-off reactors. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 97:9885–9895. doi:10.1007/s00253-013-5025-4
Song H, Zhu Y, Li J (2015) Electron transfer mechanisms, characteristics and applications of biological cathode microbial fuel cells—a mini review. Arab J Chem. doi:10.1016/j.arabjc.2015.01.008
Tao Q, Luo J, Zhou J et al (2014) Effect of dissolved oxygen on nitrogen and phosphorus removal and electricity production in microbial fuel cell. Bioresour Technol 164:402–407. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2014.05.002
Trapero JR, Horcajada L, Linares JJ, Lobato J (2017) Is microbial fuel cell technology ready? An economic answer towards industrial commercialization. Appl Energy 185:698–707. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.10.109
Velvizhi G, Goud RK, Venkata Mohan S (2014) Anoxic bio-electrochemical system for treatment of complex chemical wastewater with simultaneous bioelectricity generation. Bioresour Technol 151:214–220. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2013.10.028
Venkata Mohan S, Mohanakrishna G, Srikanth S, Sarma PN (2008) Harnessing of bioelectricity in microbial fuel cell (MFC) employing aerated cathode through anaerobic treatment of chemical wastewater using selectively enriched hydrogen producing mixed consortia. Fuel 87:2667–2676. doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2008.03.002
Virdis B, Rabaey K, Yuan Z, Keller J (2008) Microbial fuel cells for simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal. Water Res 42:3013–3024. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2008.03.017
Zhang X, Zhu F, Chen L et al (2013) Removal of ammonia nitrogen from wastewater using an aerobic cathode microbial fuel cell. Bioresour Technol 146:161–168. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2013.07.024
Zhang W, Zhang Y, Su W et al (2014) Effects of cathode potentials and nitrate concentrations on dissimilatory nitrate reductions by Pseudomonas alcaliphila in bioelectrochemical systems. J Environ Sci (China) 26:885–891. doi:10.1016/S1001-0742(13)60460-X
Zhang X, He W, Ren L et al (2015) COD removal characteristics in air-cathode microbial fuel cells. Bioresour Technol 176:23–31. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2014.11.001
Zhao Y, Li P, Wang X, Sun Y (2012) Influence of initial biofilm growth on electrochemical behavior in dual-chambered mediator microbial fuel cell. J Fuel Chem Technol 40:967–972. doi:10.1016/S1872-5813(12)60034-6
Zhu G, Onodera T, Tandukar M, Pavlostathis SG (2013) Simultaneous carbon removal, denitrification and power generation in a membrane-less microbial fuel cell. Bioresour Technol 146:1–6. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2013.07.032
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) ScienceFund (Grant No. 02-01-15-SF0201). The authors are grateful for carbon felt provided by Maido Corporation, Japan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Editorial responsibility: M. Abbaspour.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Oon, YS., Ong, SA., Ho, LN. et al. Microbial fuel cell operation using nitrate as terminal electron acceptor for simultaneous organic and nutrient removal. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 14, 2435–2442 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-017-1329-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-017-1329-8