TY - JOUR
T1 - Modular tubular microbial fuel cells for energy recovery during sucrose wastewater treatment at low organic loading rate
AU - Kim, Jung Rae
AU - Premier, Giuliano
AU - Hawkes, Freda
AU - Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Jorge
AU - Dinsdale, Richard
AU - Guwy, Alan
PY - 2009/9/30
Y1 - 2009/9/30
N2 - Energy recovery while treating low organic loads has been investigated using longitudinal tubular microbial fuel cell (MFC) reactors. Duplicate reactors, each consisting of two modules, were operated with influent sucrose organic loading rates (OLRs) between 0.04 and 0.42 g COD/l/d. Most soluble COD (sCOD) removal occurred in the first modules with predominantly VFAs reaching the second modules. Coulombic efficiency (CE) in the second modules ranged from 9% to 92% which was 3–4 times higher than the first modules. The maximum energy production was 1.75 W h/g COD in the second modules at OLR 0.24 g/l/d, up to 10 times higher than the first modules, attributable to non-fermentable substrate. A simple plug flow model of the reactors, including a generic non-electrogenic reaction competing for acetate, was developed. This modular tubular design can reproducibly distribute bioprocesses between successive modules and could be scalable, acting as a polishing stage while reducing energy requirements in wastewater treatment.
AB - Energy recovery while treating low organic loads has been investigated using longitudinal tubular microbial fuel cell (MFC) reactors. Duplicate reactors, each consisting of two modules, were operated with influent sucrose organic loading rates (OLRs) between 0.04 and 0.42 g COD/l/d. Most soluble COD (sCOD) removal occurred in the first modules with predominantly VFAs reaching the second modules. Coulombic efficiency (CE) in the second modules ranged from 9% to 92% which was 3–4 times higher than the first modules. The maximum energy production was 1.75 W h/g COD in the second modules at OLR 0.24 g/l/d, up to 10 times higher than the first modules, attributable to non-fermentable substrate. A simple plug flow model of the reactors, including a generic non-electrogenic reaction competing for acetate, was developed. This modular tubular design can reproducibly distribute bioprocesses between successive modules and could be scalable, acting as a polishing stage while reducing energy requirements in wastewater treatment.
KW - Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC)
KW - Tubular reactor
KW - Low organic loading
KW - electricity generation
U2 - 10.1016/j.biortech.2009.09.023
DO - 10.1016/j.biortech.2009.09.023
M3 - Article
C2 - 19796931
VL - 101
SP - 1190
EP - 1198
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
IS - 4
ER -