Abstract
Aiming to reduce the energy input, oxygen supply by trickling filter was employed in a biocathode microbial fuel cell (MFC) to examine its performance of electricity production and sewage treatment. During batch operation, trickling MFC (TMFC) could start and aerate effectively (DO>3.60 mg/L). During continuous operation, TMFC produced a maximum current density of 71.8 A/m3 and maximum power density of 26.2 W/m3 under the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 10 h. By increasing the HRT to 15 h, 90.6% of COD and 99.0% of ammonia in simulated domestic sewage were efficiently removed and the maximum power density was 19.4 W/m3. Continuous purification of real municipal wastewater achieved 85.9% of COD removal rate and 91.6% of ammonia removal rate. Sequencing result of biocathodic microorganisms indicated that it consisted of four major classes and the dominant class was γ-proteobacteria, which accounted for up to 84.38%. The dominant genus was Acinetobacter, which accounted for 57.81%. The phylogenetic tree showed different relationships among the 19 species of biocathode microorganisms and the predominant species was Acinetobacter calcoaceticus.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Batstone D J, Hülsen T, Mehta C M, et al. Platforms for energy and nutrient recovery from domestic wastewater: A review. Chemosphere, 2015, 140: 2–11
Logan B E, Regan J M. Microbial fuel cells—challenges and applications. Environ Sci Technol, 2006, 40: 5172–5180
Rabaey K, Verstraete W. Microbial fuel cells: novel biotechnology for energy generation. Trends Biotech, 2005, 23: 291–298
Logan B E, Hamelers B, Rozendal R, et al. Microbial fuel cells: Methodology and technology. Environ Sci Technol, 2006, 40: 5181–5192
Logan B E. Exoelectrogenic bacteria that power microbial fuel cells. Nat Rev Micro, 2009, 7: 375–381
Logan B E, Rabaey K. Conversion of wastes into bioelectricity and chemicals by using microbial electrochemical technologies. Science, 2012, 337: 686–690
Lovley D R. The microbe electric: Conversion of organic matter to electricity. Curr Opin Biotech, 2008, 19: 564–571
He Z, Angenent L. Application of bacterial biocathodes in microbial fuel cells. Electroanalysis, 2006, 18: 2009–2015
Xie S, Liang P, Chen Y, et al. Simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal using an oxic/anoxic-biocathode microbial fuel cells coupled system. Bioresource Tech, 2011, 102: 348–354
Bergel A, Féron D, Mollica A. Catalysis of oxygen reduction in PEM fuel cell by seawater biofilm. Electrochem Commun, 2005, 7: 900–904
Clauwaert P, van der Ha D, Boon N, et al. Open air biocathode enables effective electricity generation with microbial fuel cells. Environ Sci Technol, 2007, 41: 7564–7569
Virdis B, Read S T, Rabaey K, et al. Biofilm stratification during simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) at a biocathode. Bioresource Tech, 2011, 102: 334–341
Yu C P, Liang Z, Das A, et al. Nitrogen removal from wastewater using membrane aerated microbial fuel cell techniques. Water Res, 2011, 45: 1157–1164
He Z, Kan J, Wang Y, et al. Electricity production coupled to ammonium in a microbial fuel cell. Environ Sci Technol, 2009, 43: 3391–3397
Cao X, Shao L G, Liang P, et al. Performance of novel trickling biocathode microbial fuel cell. China Water Wastewater, 2012, 28: 40–43
Liang P, Wei J, Li M, et al. Scaling up a novel denitrifying microbial fuel cell with an oxic-anoxic two stage biocathode. Front Environ Sci Eng, 2013, 7: 913–919
Sun H, Xu S, Zhuang G, et al. Performance and recent improvement in microbial fuel cells for simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal: A review. J Environ Sci, 2016, 39: 242–248
Virdis B, Rabaey K, Yuan Z, et al. Microbial fuel cells for simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal. Water Res, 2008, 42: 3013–3024
Liang P, Duan R, Jiang Y, et al. One-year operation of 1000-L modularized microbial fuel cell for municipal wastewater treatment. Water Res, 2018, 141: 1–8
Gao C, Liu L, Yang F. Development of a novel proton exchange membrane-free integrated MFC system with electric membrane bioreactor and air contact oxidation bed for efficient and energy-saving wastewater treatment. Bioresource Tech, 2017, 238: 472–483
Zou S, He Z. Efficiently “pumping out” value-added resources from wastewater by bioelectrochemical systems: A review from energy perspectives. Water Res, 2018, 131: 62–73
Zhang F, Ge Z, Grimaud J, et al. Improving electricity production in tubular microbial fuel cells through optimizing the anolyte flow with spiral spacers. Bioresource Tech, 2013, 134: 251–256
Sun Y, Wei J, Liang P, et al. Electricity generation and microbial community changes in microbial fuel cells packed with different anodic materials. Bioresource Tech, 2011, 102: 10886–10891
Wang Z, Deng H, Chen L, et al. In situ measurements of dissolved oxygen, pH and redox potential of biocathode microenvironments using microelectrodes. Bioresource Tech, 2013, 132: 387–390
Wang Z, Zheng Y, Xiao Y, et al. Analysis of oxygen reduction and microbial community of air-diffusion biocathode in microbial fuel cells. Bioresource Tech, 2013, 144: 74–79
Rabaey K, Read S T, Clauwaert P, et al. Cathodic oxygen reduction catalyzed by bacteria in microbial fuel cells. ISME J, 2008, 2: 519–527
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51422810, 51679041).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cao, X., Liang, P., Song, X. et al. Trickling filter in a biocathode microbial fuel cell for efficient wastewater treatment and energy production. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 62, 1703–1709 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-018-9380-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-018-9380-0