Chemical wastewater is ofen toxic and has complex pollutant components, which makes it difficult to treat. It is necessary to overcome the problem with traditional advanced oxidation based wastewater treatment technology , such as high cost and high energy consumption. The new type technology of catalytic fuel cell can adopt principles of bioelectrochemical fuel cell, microbial metabolism and electrochemical catalysis to convert the chemical energy of pollutants in wastewater into electrical energy, and recover part of that energy . To enhance the electricity generation performance and pollutant degradation performance in such new fuel cells systems, modified electrodes with active low cost nanomaterial were prepared and tested. In this study, activated carbon was used as cathode in microbial fuel cell (MFC) system. By selecting hydraulic retention times, the degradation of pollutants in industrial wastewater (from coking process and industrial park ) can be achieved. At hydraulic retention time 18 h, coking wastewater ( influent COD, NH4+-N and TN were 2375.33, 45.84 and 168.93 mg/L), after two-cascade treatment in AC-MFC , the effluent COD, NH4+-N,TN were 41.00 , 2.56 and 9.36 (mg/L), respectively, and the removals were 98.27%, 94.42% and 94.46%. Alternatively, COD and NH4+-N TN of the industrial park wastewater were 4935 , 106.2 and 217.18 mg/L. After two-cascade treatment in AC-MFC, the effluent COD, NH4+-N and TN were 138.40, 5.75 and 17.73 mg/L, the removals were 97.20%, 94.59% and 91.83%, respectively. With the modified cathode (Fe/CN@C), at individual 14 h hydraulic retention time, and two cascade treatment in Fe/CN@C - MFC, the effluent COD, NH4+-N and TN of the coking wastewater were 43.74, 4.00 and 9.86 mg/L, r, the removals were 98.16%, 91.27% and 94.16%, respectively.After two-cascade Fe/CN@C MFC treatment, the COD, NH4+-N and TN the industrial park wastewater were 93.61 , 8.65 and 15.10 mg/L,respectively, and the removals were 98.10%, 91.86% and 93.05%, respectively. The catalytic cathode was characterized by SEM, TEM, and CV. The Fe/CN@C cathode improves the power generation and treatment efficiency. Microbiological analysis shows that the biological effect and cathode catalysis were well integrated in wastewater treatment.

Catalytic microbial fuel cell reactor & successful cascade treatment of chemical industrial wastewater

ACS Spring 2022

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