Sustainable treatment of acetaminophen wastewater with simultaneous water recovery and energy generation in osmotic microbial fuel cells.
AI summary
75% confidenceThis MFC study investigates Acetaminophen, Electricity generation, Membrane fouling. Key performance metrics include power density.
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Abstract
As acetaminophen (ACT) is ubiquitous in the environment and may pose long-term ecological impacts, it is recognized as an important emerging contaminant. The osmotic microbial fuel cell systems (OsMFCs) integrate the direct biodegradation with the membrane separation process for simultaneous efficient removal of ACT, along with the production of bioenergy and high-quality water recovery. This study investigated ACT removal by OsMFCs and demonstrated that OsMFCs were able to maintain high ACT removal efficiencies (>97%) across a wide range of ACT concentrations. In addition, the corresponding effect of ACT on the reactor performance was also monitored. The results showed that no significant differences were observed between the low concentration ACT groups and the control. Although high ACT concentrations caused a slight decrease in chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, the system still maintained a high removal efficiency (>87%); however, the water flux decreased with the same cycle, while the internal resistance increased from 238 Ω to 337 Ω, and the power density also decreased. Interestingly, no significant differences in electricity generation were observed among all groups. Microbial community analysis revealed that several electrogenic bacteria were enriched under ACT stress conditions, which enabled the high concentration groups to maintain a stable power generation. Additionally, the removal mechanism and fate of ACT in the OsMFCs were investigated. The results indicated that the mechanism of ACT removal was mainly adsorption and biodegradation. This work offers a new treatment pathway for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment and helps promote the application of OsMFCs.