Removal and fate of trace organic compounds in microbial fuel cells
By Heming Wang and Dean Heil and Zhiyong Jason Ren and Pei Xu
Published in Chemosphere
2015
Abstract
This study focused on understanding and characterizing the removal of trace organic compounds (TOrCs) in microbial fuel cells (MFC). 26 \TOrCs\ with broad physicochemical properties were spiked in synthetic wastewater. Single-chamber air-cathode \MFC\ (SMFC) and double-chamber air-cathode \MFC\ (DMFC) were constructed to provide combined or separated oxidation/reduction environments for \TOrCs\ removal. The study showed that \TOrCs\ removal processes involved both sorption and biodegradation. For neutral TOrCs, the removal efficiency was affected primarily by the biodegradability probability and hydrophobicity of the compounds, while electrostatic interactions played an additional role in the \MFCs\ as the removal of positively charged \TOrCs\ was generally higher than negatively charged TOrCs. The presence of \TOrCs\ showed negligible impact on \MFC\ power generation, likewise the operation of \MFCs\ had marginal effect on \TOrCs\ removal, except longer residence time in \MFCs\ improved biological removal performance.