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This study presents a microbial nutrient recovery cell (MNRC) that simultaneously purifies wastewater and recovers nutrient ions using bioelectricity generated in situ from wastewater without external energy input. The three-chamber system uses cation and anion exchange membranes to concentrate ammonium and phosphate in a recovery chamber while removing COD, NH₄⁺-N, and PO₄³⁻-P from synthetic wastewater. Removal efficiencies exceeded 82% for COD, 96% for NH₄⁺-N, and 64% for PO₄³⁻-P, with nutrient concentrations in the recovery solution reaching 1.5–2.2 times initial wastewater levels.

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What they did

System
MNRC

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Abstract

Conventional wastewater purification technologies consume large amounts of energy, while the abundant chemical energy and nutrient resources contained in sewage are wasted in such treatment processes. A microbial nutrient recovery cell (MNRC) has been developed to take advantage of the energy contained in wastewater, in order to simultaneously purify wastewater and recover nutrient ions. When wastewater was circulated between the anode and cathode chambers of the MNRC, the organics (COD) were removed by bacteria while ammonium and phosphate (NH₄⁺-N and PO₄³⁻-P) were recovered by the electrical field that was produced using in situ energy in the wastewater without additional energy input. The removal efficiencies from wastewater were >82% for COD, >96% for NH₄⁺-N, and >64% for PO₄³⁻-P in all the operational cycles. Simultaneously, the concentrations of NH₄⁺ and PO₄³⁻ in the recovery chamber increased to more than 1.5 and 2.2 times, respectively, compared with the initial concentrations in wastewater. The MNRC provides proof-of-concept as a sustainable, self-driven approach to efficient wastewater purification and nutrient recovery in a comprehensive bioelectrochemical system.

Keywords

WastewaterNutrientMicrobial fuel cellAmmoniumSewagePhosphateSewage treatmentEnvironmental sciencePulp and paper industryEnergy recoveryChemistryAnodeEnvironmental engineeringElectrodeEnergy (signal processing)BiochemistryMathematics

Identifiers

DOI
10.1038/srep15744
Journal
Scientific Reports
Year
2015