Constructed sediment microbial fuel cell for treatment of fat, oil, grease (FOG) trap effluent: Role of anode and cathode chamber amendment, electrode selection, and scalability

Abstract

For wastewater treatment, sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) have advantages over traditional microbial fuel cells in cost (due to their membrane-less structure) and operation (less intensive maintenance). Nevertheless, the technical obstacles of SMFCs include their high internal electrical resistance due to sediment in the anode chamber and slow oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the cathode chamber, which is responsible for their low power density (PD) (0.2–50 mW/m2). This study evaluated several SMFC improvements, including anode and cathode chamber amendment, electrode selection, and scaling the chamber size up to obtain optimally constructed single-chamber SMFCs to treat fat, oil, and grease (FOG) trap effluent. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency, PD, and electrical energy conversion efficiency concerning theoretically available chemical energy from FOG trap effluent treatment (%ECWW) were examined. Packing biochar in the anode chamber reduced its electrical resistance by 5.76 times, but the improvement in PD was trivial. Substantial improvement occurred when packing the cathode chamber with activated carbon (AC), which presumably catalyzed the ORR, yielding a maximum PD of 109.39 mW/m2, 959 times greater than without AC in the cathode chamber. This SMFC configuration resulted in a COD removal efficiency of 85.80 % and a %ECWW of 99.74 % in 30 days. Furthermore, using the most appropriate electrode pair and chamber volume increased the maximum PD to 1787.26 mW/m2, around 1.7 times greater than the maximum PD by SMFCs reported thus far. This optimally constructed SMFC is low cost and applicable for household wastewater treatment.