An aerobic/anaerobic-biocathode integrated MFCs system for simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal

摘要

The recent studies have proved cathodic nitrate reduction in anaerobic-biocathode microbial fuel cell (MFC) and cathodic ammonium oxidation in air-biocathode MFC,which created an opportunity for a new method for nitrogen removal from wastewater. A novel process configuration that achieves both carbon and nitrogen removal using two-MFCs-coupled system is designed and demonstrated. The two-MFCs-coupled system contained an air-biocathode MFC and an anaerobicbiocathode MFC,which were called Rl and R2. The process involves feeding the ammonium-containing effluent from the anode of Rl and R2 to the cathode of Rl for nitrification,and then feeding the nitrified liquor to the cathode of R2 for nitrate reduction.Removal rates up to 62.9 g NO-3-N/(m3 NCC d),73.8 g NH-4-N/(m3 NCC d) and 1210.3 g COD/(m3 TNCC d) were continuously achieved in this integrated MFCs system. The MFCs system produced a power output of 14.74 W/m3 NCC for R1 and 6.80 W/m3 NCC for R2.