Nitrogen removal from wastewater using membrane aerated microbial fuel cell techniques.

Water Res

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Missouri, E2509 Lafferre Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.

Published: January 2011

Nitrogen removal mainly relies on sequential nitrification and denitrification in wastewater treatment. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are innovative wastewater treatment techniques for pollution control and energy generation. In this study, bench-scale wastewater treatment systems using membrane-aerated MFC (MAMFC) and diffuser-aerated MFC (DAMFC) techniques were constructed for simultaneous removal of carbonaceous and nitrogenous pollutants and electricity production from wastewater. During 210 days of continuous flow operation, when the dissolved oxygen (DO) in the cathodic compartment was kept at 2 mg/L, both reactors demonstrated high COD removal (>99%) and high ammonia removal (>99%) but low nitrogen removal (<20%). When a lower DO (0.5 mg/L) was maintained after day 121, both the MFC-based reactors still had excellent COD removal (>97%). However, the nitrogen removal of MAMFC (52%) was 2-fold higher than that of DAMFC (24%), indicating an enhanced performance of denitrification after DO reduction in the cathodic compartment of the MAMFC. Meanwhile, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) population in the MAMFC indicated the diversity of AOB with equally important Nitrosospira and Nitrosomonas species present in the cathodic biofilm after DO reduction. The average voltage output in the MAMFC was significantly higher than that in DAMFC under both DO conditions. The results suggest that MAMFC systems have the potential for wastewater treatment with improved nitrogen removal and electricity production.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2010.11.002DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

nitrogen removal
20
wastewater treatment
16
microbial fuel
8
electricity production
8
cathodic compartment
8
removal >99%
8
higher damfc
8
removal
7
wastewater
6
mamfc
6

Similar Publications

Effect of doping in TiO/chitosan composite on adsorptive-photocatalytic removal of gallic acid from water.

Chemosphere

January 2025

Department of Chemistry, School of Chemical Engineering and Physical Sciences, Lovely professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India. Electronic address:

Gallic acid (GA) has emerged as a low biodegradable and high acidity industrial effluent. Due to mutagenic and carcinogenic nature of GA, it becomes essential to remove it from wastewater. Different chemical, physical and biological methods are being used for this purpose.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The inhibition of anammox system under Cu stress and mechanisms of biochar-mediated recovery.

J Hazard Mater

January 2025

School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, PR China; Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Technology and Material of Water Treatment, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, PR China. Electronic address:

Copper (Cu)-containing wastewater has proven difficult to effectively treat using the anammox process. In this study, the nitrogen removal efficiency (NRE), sludge characteristics, microbial community and recovery mechanisms of biochar-mediated anammox under Cu stress were elucidated. At a Custress of 5 mg/L, a 73.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) has garnered significant attention due to its ability to eliminate the need for aeration and supplementary carbon sources in biological nitrogen removal process, relying on the capacity of anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AnAOB) to directly convert ammonium and nitrite nitrogen into nitrogen gas. This review consolidates the latest advancements in AnAOB research, outlining the mechanisms and enzymatic processes of Anammox, and summarizing the molecular biological techniques used for studying AnAOB, such as 16s rRNA sequencing, qPCR, and metagenomic sequencing. Additionally, it also overviews the currently identified AnAOB species and their distinct metabolic traits, while consolidating strategies to improve their performance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The deammonification process is an efficient alternative to remove nitrogen from wastewater with a low carbon/nitrogen ratio. However, the reactor configuration and operational factors pose challenges for applications in treatment systems to remove nitrogen from municipal and industrial wastewater on a large scale. To address this gap, this study evaluated a new deammonification strategy using a single-stage membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR), operated with continuous flow, under different hydraulic retention times (HRT) in the post-treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater with a low nitrogen load, similar to domestic wastewater.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) have been widely used in the field of wastewater treatment because of their small footprint and high treatment efficiency. In this research, 10 rural wastewater treatment sites in China that employ the MBR process were systematically studied. Specifically, treatment of actual domestic wastewater using MBRs was examined by high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing to explore the microbial community composition and perform function prediction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!