TY - JOUR
T1 - Low Temperature Domestic Wastewater Treatment in a Microbial Electrolysis Cell with 1 m2 Anodes
T2 - Towards System Scale-Up
AU - Cotterill, S. E.
AU - Dolfing, J.
AU - Jones, C.
AU - Curtis, T. P.
AU - Heidrich, E. S.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful for the continuous support of staff at Northumbrian Water: with special thanks to Chris Hepple, Laura Wilkinson, Trevor Fenwick and Stuart Barnes. The work was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Northumbrian Water, through a STREAM IDC engineering doctorate (EP/G037094/1).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Authors. Fuel Cells is published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/10
Y1 - 2017/10
N2 - The potential benefits of applying microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) technology to wastewater treatment are clear and profound. Previous pilot studies have demonstrated a ‘proof of concept' with domestic waste at ambient temperatures, but have not yet treated waste to required discharge standards, and have not reached energy neutrality. In addition, these reactors have been many orders of magnitude smaller than would be needed for full scale wastewater treatment plants. Scale-up affects many of the parameters that underpin performance; understanding its impact will be vital to further progress. Modifying a previously tested cassette-style design, we reduced the internal resistance, and increased the module size by a factor of 16, constructing an MEC with six 1 m2 anodes. This created an anodic surface area to volume ratio of 34 m2 m−3. The system was operated at a hydraulic retention time of 5 hours on settled domestic wastewater for 217 days, producing more current than a scaled-down reactor, which was run in parallel. The large MEC produced 0.8 L of 93% pure H2 d−1 at ambient winter temperatures (11.4 ± 2.5 °C). Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal averaged 63.5% with an average effluent quality of 124.7 mgCOD L−1, achieving the European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (1991) consent.
AB - The potential benefits of applying microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) technology to wastewater treatment are clear and profound. Previous pilot studies have demonstrated a ‘proof of concept' with domestic waste at ambient temperatures, but have not yet treated waste to required discharge standards, and have not reached energy neutrality. In addition, these reactors have been many orders of magnitude smaller than would be needed for full scale wastewater treatment plants. Scale-up affects many of the parameters that underpin performance; understanding its impact will be vital to further progress. Modifying a previously tested cassette-style design, we reduced the internal resistance, and increased the module size by a factor of 16, constructing an MEC with six 1 m2 anodes. This created an anodic surface area to volume ratio of 34 m2 m−3. The system was operated at a hydraulic retention time of 5 hours on settled domestic wastewater for 217 days, producing more current than a scaled-down reactor, which was run in parallel. The large MEC produced 0.8 L of 93% pure H2 d−1 at ambient winter temperatures (11.4 ± 2.5 °C). Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal averaged 63.5% with an average effluent quality of 124.7 mgCOD L−1, achieving the European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (1991) consent.
KW - Bioelectrochemical System (BES)
KW - Chemical Oxygen Demand Removal (COD)
KW - Energy Recovery
KW - Hydrogen Production
KW - Microbial Electrolysis Cell (MEC)
KW - Scale-up
KW - Wastewater Treatment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85020127603&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/fuce.201700034
DO - 10.1002/fuce.201700034
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85020127603
SN - 1615-6846
VL - 17
SP - 584
EP - 592
JO - Fuel Cells
JF - Fuel Cells
IS - 5
ER -
