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The reaction of wastewater treatment and power generation of single chamber microbial fuel cell against substrate concentration and anode distributions

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Abstract

This study demonstrated the effectiveness of single chamber up-flow membrane-less microbial fuel cell (UFML-MFC) in wastewater treatment concurrently with bioelectricity generation. The objectives of this study were to examine the effect of influent substrate concentration (0.405 g/L, 0.810 g/L, 1.215 g/L, 1.620 g/L), anode distributions (11 cm, 17 cm, 23 cm ) and surface morphologies for biofilm formation on the performance of wastewater treatment and power generation. The optimum performance was obtained with substrate concentration of 0.810 g/L. The COD removal efficiency, output voltage, internal resistance, power density and current density obtained were 84.64%, 610 mV, 200 Ω, 162.59 mW/m2 and 468.74 mA/m2, respectively. The Coulombic Efficiency (CE), Normalized Energy Recovery (NERS and NERv) were 1.03%, 789.38 kWh/kg COD and 22.56 kWh/m3, respectively. The results also indicate that the output voltage and power generation obtained in a continuous up-flow MFC were higher with A3 (23 cm), which is of larger electrodes spacing followed by A2 (17 cm) and A1 (11 cm) caused by the enrichment of anaerobic microbial population at A1.

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Acknowledgements

Maido Corporation Japan and Osaka Gas Chemicals Co. Ltd. is gratefully acknowledged by providing us with carbon felt.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Research Group (WAREG), School of Environmental Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia

    Sing-Mei Tan, Yee-Shian Wong & Tean-Peng Teoh

  2. School of Environmental Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia

    Soon-An Ong

  3. School of Materials Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia

    Li-Ngee Ho

  4. Faculty of Engineering, Technology & Built Environment, UCSI University, 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Wei-Eng Thung

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  1. Sing-Mei Tan
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Tan, SM., Ong, SA., Ho, LN. et al. The reaction of wastewater treatment and power generation of single chamber microbial fuel cell against substrate concentration and anode distributions. J Environ Health Sci Engineer 18, 793–807 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40201-020-00504-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40201-020-00504-w

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