Abstract
It has been hypothesized that ammonia removal is primarily due to ammonia volatilization through the air–cathode in single-chamber microbial fuel cells. This hypothesis was supported by the “abiotic tests” with microbial fuel cells. In our reproduced abiotic test, the same extent of decrease in ammonia concentration was observed regardless of gas permeability through the air–cathode. In an experiment replacing chloride ions with sulfate ions in wastewater, almost no decrease in ammonia concentration was observed. These results suggest ammonia loss in the “abiotic tests” was mostly driven by electrochemical oxidation due to chloride ions also present in the solution. When the pH of the synthetic wastewater was made equivalent to that near the cathode of electricity-generating microbial fuel cell but without an applied voltage, a decrease in ammonia concentration was observed. The result suggests that the hypothesized ammonia volatilization through the air–cathode does occur and contribute to ammonia loss to some extent.
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