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This paper investigates the optimization of wood industry wastewater treatment in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) using mixed wastewaters, finding that different external resistances affect power density and wastewater treatment efficiency.

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What they did

System
MFC
Substrate
real wastewater

What worked

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Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) has the potential to become a promising sustainable technology of wastewater treatment. Usually, the investigations on MFCs are aimed at maximized power production in the system. In this article, we focused on the optimization of wood industry wastewater treatment in MFC, in combination with municipal wastewater as a source of microorganisms. We investigated the influence of different external resistance (2000 Ω, 1000 Ω, 500 Ω, and 100 Ω) on power density and wastewater treatment efficiency (chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal) in 1-month MFC operation time. We found that the highest COD removal was for MFCs under R = 1000 Ω after 22 days of MFC operation, while the highest current density was obtained for the lowest applied resistance. The results imply that wastewater treatment parameters such as resistance and time of MFC operation should be a subject of optimization for each specific type of wastewater used, in order to maximize either wastewater treatment efficiency or power production in MFC. Thus, optimization of power production and COD removal efficiency in MFCs need to be run separately as different resistances are required for maximizing these two parameters. When COD removal efficiency is a subject of optimization, there is no universal value of external resistance, but it should be set to the specific wastewater characteristics.

Key findings

  • The highest COD removal was achieved with an external resistance of 1000 Ω after 22 days of MFC operation.
  • The highest current density was obtained with the lowest applied resistance.
  • Optimization of power production and COD removal efficiency in MFCs requires separate optimization of resistance and operation time for each type of wastewater.

Keywords

Microbial fuel cellWastewaterChemical oxygen demandSewage treatmentPulp and paper industryInternal resistance

Identifiers

DOI
10.3390/en13010263
Journal
Energies
Year
2020