The power plants consume 40% of the total freshwater withdrawals in the United States. The goal of this research is to evaluate the feasibility of a two-stage bio-electrochemical approach for treating the municipal wastewater, and enabling its reuse as a cooling water in power plants. The first stage uses microbes to promote electrochemical oxidation of organic matter, while the second stage uses membrane ultrafiltration to treat the residual chemical oxygen demand and sloughed particulates (including microbes), yielding a high-quality effluent for subsequent reuse in power plants. The proposed approach is energy-efficient and cost-effective compared to typical aerobic processes. We used a novel high-throughput approach to identify anti-fouling membrane chemistries for proposed application using a photo-or plasma- initiated graft polymerization (HTP-PGP) using commercial poly (ether sulfone) membranes. We obtained promising preliminary results. The COD removal efficiency reached as high as 98%; further, the effluent quality was on par with regulatory limits for contaminants such as suspended solids, Ca, Mg, Mn, Cu, Al, and S.

Cost-effective microbial-electrochemical/membrane approach for enabling wastewater reuse in power plants

251st National Meeting (2016)

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