TY - JOUR
T1 - Complete nitrogen removal by simultaneous nitrification and denitrification in flat-panel air-cathode microbial fuel cells treating domestic wastewater
AU - Park, Younghyun
AU - Park, Seonghwan
AU - Nguyen, Van Khanh
AU - Yu, Jaecheul
AU - Torres, Cesar
AU - Rittmann, Bruce
AU - Lee, Taeho
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the Brain Korea 21 Plus Project in the Division of Creative Low Impact Development and Management for Ocean Port City Infrastructures (21A20132012304) and the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (NRF-2015R1A2A1A15054528).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can treat organic compounds from domestic wastewater without aeration, but an additional procedure is required to remove nitrogen. This study developed a flat-panel air-cathode MFC (FA-MFC) that was comprised of five MFC units connected in series and operated to remove organic and nitrogen compounds from domestic wastewater with a short hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2.5 h. During eight months of operation, the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total nitrogen (TN) increased, reaching 85% and 94%, respectively, and the effluent COD and TN concentrations were 20.7 ± 2.5 mg/L and 1.7 ± 0.1 mg/L, respectively. The greatest removals of COD and TN were in the first and second unit (0.62 kg-N/m3/d of TN removal rate). The FA-MFC system allowed simultaneous removals of COD and TN from domestic wastewater, although it led to minimal power output (6.3 W/m3in the first unit). Because any abiotic ammonia loss was not found under the supplied potential of ∼1.1 V at a short HRT of 30 min, the biological nitrogen removal was thought as a dominant mechanism for TN removal in the FA-MFCs. Microbial community analysis revealed that, near the cathode, Nitrosomonas-like strains contributed to nitrification and Nitratireductor-like strains led to denitrification. Acidovorax-like strains, known for their metabolic diversity, were ubiquitous and appeared to contribute to organics and nitrogen removal in anode and cathode biofilms. This study provides proof of concept that the FA-MFC system has a promise for energy sustainable wastewater treatment.
AB - Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can treat organic compounds from domestic wastewater without aeration, but an additional procedure is required to remove nitrogen. This study developed a flat-panel air-cathode MFC (FA-MFC) that was comprised of five MFC units connected in series and operated to remove organic and nitrogen compounds from domestic wastewater with a short hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2.5 h. During eight months of operation, the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total nitrogen (TN) increased, reaching 85% and 94%, respectively, and the effluent COD and TN concentrations were 20.7 ± 2.5 mg/L and 1.7 ± 0.1 mg/L, respectively. The greatest removals of COD and TN were in the first and second unit (0.62 kg-N/m3/d of TN removal rate). The FA-MFC system allowed simultaneous removals of COD and TN from domestic wastewater, although it led to minimal power output (6.3 W/m3in the first unit). Because any abiotic ammonia loss was not found under the supplied potential of ∼1.1 V at a short HRT of 30 min, the biological nitrogen removal was thought as a dominant mechanism for TN removal in the FA-MFCs. Microbial community analysis revealed that, near the cathode, Nitrosomonas-like strains contributed to nitrification and Nitratireductor-like strains led to denitrification. Acidovorax-like strains, known for their metabolic diversity, were ubiquitous and appeared to contribute to organics and nitrogen removal in anode and cathode biofilms. This study provides proof of concept that the FA-MFC system has a promise for energy sustainable wastewater treatment.
KW - Denitrification
KW - Domestic wastewater
KW - Energy-sustainable wastewater treatment
KW - Microbial community
KW - Microbial fuel cell
KW - Nitrification
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cej.2017.02.005
DO - 10.1016/j.cej.2017.02.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85013168370
SN - 1385-8947
VL - 316
SP - 673
EP - 679
JO - Chemical Engineering Journal
JF - Chemical Engineering Journal
ER -