Different Types of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Systems for Simultaneous Electricity Generation and Pollutant Removal

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between the rate of electricity generation and the rate of carbon and nitrogen removal from wastewater using different MFC processes. Determining whether the generation of electricity using MFC process could be related to the rate of pollutant removal from wastewater is noteworthy. Three types of MFC process configurations include the batch mode (SS), a continuous flow of influent with ferricyanide (PF) as the oxidizing agent and a continuous flow of influent with oxygen (PU) as the oxidizing agent. The highest quantity of electricity generation was achieved using the continuous flow mode with ferricyanide (0.833 V), followed by the continuous flow mode with oxygen (0.589 V) and the batch mode (0.352 V). The highest efficiency of carbon removal is also achieved by the continuous flow mode with ferricyanide (87%), followed by the continuous flow mode with oxygen (51%) and the batch mode (46%). Moreover, the continuous flow mode with ferricyanide produced the highest efficiency for nitrogen removal (63%), followed by the continuous flow mode with oxygen (54%) and the batch mode (27%).