Towards concurrent pollutants removal and high energy harvesting in a pilot-scale CW-MFC: Insight into the cathode conditions and electrodes connection

By Cheng Tang, Yaqian Zhao, Chun Kang, Yan Yang, D. Morgan, Lei Xu. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2019

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Abstract This study investigated the role of cathode conditions and microbial fuel cell (MFC) connection modes of a 30 L pilot-scale constructed wetlands-microbial fuel cell (CW-MFC) in the performance of wastewater treatment and power generation. A MFC with four anodes and one cathode was integrated into constructed wetland (CW) to form a CW-MFC. Ten cathode working conditions of different connections, aeration and local effluent recirculation were tested and interpreted. The results demonstrated that activated cathode to guarantee cathode reaction is vital for CW-MFC. Higher power output of MFC was achieved with larger activated cathode area and wetting cathode environment. Parallel connection (each anode connected to cathode with separated resistor) of MFC was much better than combined connection (all anodes connected to cathode through one resistor only). The best wastewater treatment efficiency (91.7% of COD, 97.3% of ammonia-N) of the CW-MFC was reached with the highest power output (7.99 mW/m2) of MFC.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2cb7f4795e3c37b16713172ad033cca00a6592d7