Abstract
An electrochemical membrane bioreactor (EMBR) has recently been developed for energy recovery and wastewater treatment. The hydrodynamics of the EMBR would significantly affect the mass transfers and reaction kinetics, exerting a pronounced effect on reactor performance. However, only scarce information is available to date. In this study, the hydrodynamic characteristics of the EMBR were investigated through various approaches. Tracer tests were adopted to generate residence time distribution curves at various hydraulic residence times, and three hydraulic models were developed to simulate the results of tracer studies. In addition, the detailed flow patterns of the EMBR were acquired from a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Compared to the tank-in-series and axial dispersion ones, the Martin model could describe hydraulic performance of the EBMR better. CFD simulation results clearly indicated the existence of a preferential or circuitous flow in the EMBR. Moreover, the possible locations of dead zones in the EMBR were visualized through the CFD simulation. Based on these results, the relationship between the reactor performance and the hydrodynamics of EMBR was further elucidated relative to the current generation. The results of this study would benefit the design, operation and optimization of the EMBR for simultaneous energy recovery and wastewater treatment.
Highlights
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are devices that convert the chemical energy stored in organic/inorganic matter to electricity through bioelectrochemical reactions while using bacteria as catalysts[1,2,3,4]
A long tail appeared in each residence time distribution (RTD) curve, especially at hydraulic retention times (HRTs) values of 3.12 and 7.02 h, to imply that stagnant or dead zones were present in the electrochemical membrane bioreactor (EMBR) and the release of the tracer Li+ was slow with flow stream in these regions[20]
The values of dead volume are almost identical at each HRT for the two methods, further implying that the Martin model could accurately simulate the hydrodynamic performance of the EMBR
Summary
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are devices that convert the chemical energy stored in organic/inorganic matter to electricity through bioelectrochemical reactions while using bacteria as catalysts[1,2,3,4]. The values of dead volume are almost identical at each HRT for the two methods, further implying that the Martin model could accurately simulate the hydrodynamic performance of the EMBR.
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