In recent years and decades, there is a great need for developing new alternative energy sources or renewable sustainable energy. On the other hand, new technology approaches are growing . towards benefits from the valuable nutrients in wastewater which are unrecoverable by traditional wastewater treatment processes. In the current study, a novel integrated system of microbial fuel cell and anoxic bioreactor (MFC-ANB) was designed and constructed to investigate its potential for slaughterhouses wastewater treatment, nitrogen recovery, and power generation. The system consisted of a double-chamber tubular type MFC with biocathode inoculated with freshly collected activated sludge. The MFC-ANB system was continuously fed with real-field slaughterhouse wastewater, with initial concentrations of COD and ammonium were 990 mg/L and 200 mg-N/L, respectively. The MFC-ANB system was operated for a total period of 43 days. Maximum removal efficiencies of COD, ammonium, nitrate, nitrogen recovery, Columbic efficiency, and power generation were 99%, 99.3%, 100%, 100%, 13.37% and 162.22 mW/m2 , respectively.
The electrode in the microbial fuel cell has a significant effect on cell performance. The treatment of the electrode is a crucial step to make the electrode surface more habitable for bacteria growth, thus, increases the power production as well as waste treatment. In the current study, two graphite electrodes were treated by a microwave. The first electrode was treated with 100W microwave energy, while the second one was treated with 600W microwave energy. There is a significant enhancement in the surface of the graphite anode after the pretreatment process. The results show an increase in the power density from 10 mW/m2 to 15 mW/m2 with 100w treatment and to 13.47 mW/m2 with 600w treatment. An organic
... Show MoreMicrobial fuel cell is a device that uses the microorganism metabolism for the production of electricity under specific operating conditions. Double chamber microbial fuel cell was tested for the use of two cheap electrode materials copper and aluminum for the production of electricity under different operating conditions. The investigated conditions were concentration of microorganism (yeast) (0.5- 2 g/l), solutions temperature (33-45 oC) and concentration of glucose as a substrate (1.5- 6 g/l). The results demonstrated that copper electrode exhibit good performance while the performance of aluminum is poor. The electricity is generated with and without the addition of substrate. Addition of glucose substrate
... Show MoreIn this study, a one-dimensional model represented by Butler-Volmer-Monod (BVM) model was proposed to compute the anode overpotential and current density in a mediator-less MFC system. The system was fueled with various organic loadings of real field petroleum refinery oily sludge to optimize the favorable organic loading for biomass to operate the suggested system. The increase in each organic loading showed higher resistance to electrons transport to the anode represented by ohmic loss. On the contrary, both activation and mass transfer losses exhibited a noticeable decrement upon the increased organic loadings. However, current density was improved throughout all increased loads achieving a maximum current density of 5.2 A/m3
... Show MoreA microbial desalination cell (MDC) is a new approach to bioelectrochemical systems. It provides a more sustainable way to electrical power production, saltwater desalination, and wastewater treatment at the same time. This study examined three operation modes of the MDC: chemical cathode, air cathode, and biocathode MDC, to give clear sight of this system's performance. The experimental work results for these three modes were recorded as power densities generation, saltwater desalination rates, and COD removal percentages. For the chemical cathode MDC, the power density was 96.8 mW/m2, the desalination rate was 84.08 ppm/hr, and the COD removal percentage was 95.94%. The air cathode MDC results were different
... Show MoreIn this work proton exchange membranes were prepared by a modified microwave casting solution technique, using the polymers blend (polyethersulfone (PES), polystyrene (PS), polyvinylidenefluride (PVDF)). Modified casting method was used to overcome the poor compatibility between hydrophilic, (PES, PS) and hydrophobic PVDF, by cooling the substrate during the film casting process to (4.5-5.5oC). Membranes were chemically modified by three reaction types to study the differences between their effects on the required properties for microbial fuel cell application. These methods use blend organic sulfonic acid precasting process and sulfonation by sulfuric acid post-casting process (APS), blending organic
... Show MoreA new bio-electrochemical system was proposed for simultaneous removal of organic matters and salinity from actual domestic wastewater and synthetically prepared saline water, respectively. The performance of a three-chambered microbial osmotic fuel cell (MOFC) provided with forward osmosis (FO) membrane and cation exchange membrane (CEM) was evaluated with respect to the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal from wastewater, electricity generation, and desalination of saline water. The MOFC wasinoculated with activated sludge and fueled with actual domestic wastewater. Results revealed that maximum removal efficiency of COD from wastewater, TDS removal efficiency from saline water, power density, and current density were
... Show MoreMicrobial Desalination Cell (MDC) is capable of desalinating seawater, producing electrical power and treating wastewater. Previously, chemical cathodes were used, which were application restrictions due to operational expenses are quite high, low levels of long-term viability and high toxicity. A pure oxygen cathode was using, external resistance 50 and 150 k Ω were studied with two concentrations of NaCl in the desalination chamber 15-25 g/L which represents the concentration of brackish water and sea water. The highest energy productivity was obtained, which amounted to 44 and 46 mW/m3, and the maximum limit for desalination of saline water was (31% and 26%) for each of 25 g / L and 15 g / L, respectively, when using an ex
... Show MoreThis study is aimed to use the aerobic packed bed in biotreatment of the wastewater which is discharge from AL-KARAMA teaching hospital in Baghdad. The performance of packed-bed treatment method was examined for elimination of the organic compounds from wastewater under aerobic conditions. In this research different parameters were studied. They were: inoculums concentration, circulation rate of wastewater through the bed, packing type and the temperature. Results showed that the system efficiently removed about 82% of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 80% of the Biological oxygen demand (BOD). Percent reduction in turbidity was about 92% and reduction in nitrate concentration was about 87%. It was found that best performance of the pack
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