Technical and Economic Feasibility of Generating Renewable Energy from Wastewater Treatment Using Microbial Fuel Cells: The West Bank as Case Study

Abstract

The technical and economic feasibility of microbial fuel cell use in wastewater treatment for energy and resource recovery was investigated. A double chambered-MFC model (DS-MFC) operated by primary effluent wastewater as substrate was used. Four different COD-MFCs groups were constructed in three duplicates (input COD from 342 to 1733 mg/l). Initial COD value, electrode type, and salt bridge size and its concentration were set and fixed for each MFC group. After 15 days-startup period the MFCs were operated for 30 days. COD was measured for the twelve MFCs every two days and output voltage was measured every 24 hours. Results revealed that the COD of the substrate used in MFC at any time is related proportionally to output voltage from that MFC, and a logarithmic model was found that can be used to predict COD for a wastewater sample by measuring output voltage of MFC operated by that sample. Maximum COD removal percentage achieved in this study was 87.1 % which agrees with published research. A maximum output power achieved was 0.585 W/m3 treated. It was found that COD removal behavior for the first group (typical wastewater composition) was second order while the other three groups with higher concentrations was first order. The payback period of the system under consideration was estimated at 8.3 years (infeasible). If we include the environmental and energy challenge benefits of the system to its economic feasibility, the system feasibility could be considered appropriate.