PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF MICROBIAL FUEL CELLS FOR THE TREATMENT OF INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER
Deepak Lohani, Anupam Gautam
AI summary
70% confidenceThe paper evaluates the performance of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) for industrial wastewater treatment, proposing an industrial-scale MFC process for a microbrewery.
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Open in lab →What they did
- System
- MFC
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Abstract
Wastewater treatment has traditionally been an energy intensive process, consuming between 950 and 2850 kJ/m³ of wastewater treated. By one account, wastewater contains 9.3 times more energy than is used to treat an equivalent volume, thus creating the desire to harness this energy through the use of a Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC). MFCs oxidize organic substrates, allowing simultaneous wastewater treatment and electricity generation. Previous research has primarily focused on the development of MFCs for electricity generation, mainly at the small, laboratory scale. Herein, an industrial-scale MFC process is proposed for the treatment of wastewater from a microbrewery based on a previously published model describing MFC operation. Through optimization and scale-out, a two chamber MFC process is developed for the treatment of wastewater with an inlet Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD).
Key findings
- MFCs can harness energy from wastewater, with previous research focusing on laboratory-scale development.
- A two-chamber MFC process is developed for industrial-scale wastewater treatment with optimized performance.
- The proposed MFC process can treat wastewater with high Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) levels.
Keywords
Identifiers
- Journal
- International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research
- Year
- 2025