Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 May 12:6:25571.
doi: 10.1038/srep25571.

Electricity and disinfectant production from wastewater: Microbial Fuel Cell as a self-powered electrolyser

Iwona Gajda  1 , John Greenman  1   2 , Chris Melhuish  1 , Ioannis A Ieropoulos  1   2
Affiliations

Electricity and disinfectant production from wastewater: Microbial Fuel Cell as a self-powered electrolyser

Iwona Gajda et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

This study presents a simple and sustainable Microbial Fuel Cell as a standalone, self-powered reactor for in situ wastewater electrolysis, recovering nitrogen from wastewater. A process is proposed whereby the MFC electrical performance drives the electrolysis of wastewater towards the self-generation of catholyte within the same reactor. The MFCs were designed to harvest the generated catholyte in the internal chamber, which showed that liquid production rates are largely proportional to electrical current generation. The catholyte demonstrated bactericidal properties, compared to the control (open-circuit) diffusate, and reduced observable biofilm formation on the cathode electrode. Killing effects were confirmed using bacterial kill curves constructed by exposing a bioluminescent Escherichia coli target, as a surrogate coliform, to catholyte where a rapid kill rate was observed. Therefore, MFCs could serve as a water recovery system, a disinfectant/cleaner generator that limits undesired biofilm formation and as a washing agent in waterless urinals to improve sanitation. This simple and ready to implement MFC system can convert organic waste directly into electricity and self-driven nitrogen along with water recovery. This could lead to the development of energy positive bioprocesses for sustainable wastewater treatment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Current output over a 12- day period during which the catholyte accumulated in the cathode, the arrows indicate the addition of fresh substrate to the anode (A). Catholyte generated plotted against current showing linear correlation (B). Power output over a 12-day trial (C).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Photograph showing droplets formed inside the MFC cylinder accumulating liquid catholyte (A). Bar chart showing pH and conductivity measurements of the anolyte and catholyte, when the MFCs were producing power vs. the control MFC in open circuit conditions (B) data shown are the average (with error bars) from the three working MFCs, T1, T2 and T3 and three control MFCs T4, T5 and T6.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Total Nitrogen (TN) removal and recovery in the cathode from the working and control MFCs (A). COD reduction in working and OCV MFCs during the 12 day period (B).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Gas diffusion side of the cathode electrode of the loaded (working) MFCs (left) and open circuit MFCs (right). Biofilm growth was observed only on the OCV MFCs i.e. that do not produce electricity.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Catholyte samples from working (under load) and open circuit MFCs in serial dilutions cultivated on nutrient agar plates and using the standard sub-culture method.
Figure 6
Figure 6
CFU count obtained from the catholyte samples in working and control conditions.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Reduction in bioluminescence from E. coli exposed to neat catholyte obtained from closed circuit and open circuit conditions in comparison with the control (PBS) (A). Reduction in bioluminescence from E. coli exposed to 50% catholyte at pH 7.0 obtained from closed circuit and open circuit conditions (B) (*shows sample overload when the measurement exceeded the measuring range of the luminometer).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Welfle A., Gilbert P. & Thornley P. Increasing biomass resource availability through supply chain analysis. Biomass and Bioenergy 70, 249–266 (2014).
    1. Sharma S. K. & Sanghi R. Wastewater Reuse and Management. 6, (Springer Science & Business Media, 2012).
    1. Ghaffour N., Missimer T. M. & Amy G. L. Technical review and evaluation of the economics of water desalination: Current and future challenges for better water supply sustainability. Desalination 309, 197–207 (2013).
    1. Gaurina-Medjimurec N. Handbook of Research on Advancements in Environmental Engineering. 30, (IGI Global, 2014).
    1. Xu W., Li P. & Dong B. Electrochemical disinfection using the gas diffusion electrode system. J. Environ. Sci. 22, 204–210 (2010). - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources