A novel fragmented anode biofilm microbial fuel cell (FAB–MFC) integrated system for domestic wastewater treatment and bioelectricity generation

Abstract

Background

The critical MFC design challenge is to increase anode surface area. A novel FAB–MFC integrated system was developed and evaluated for domestic wastewater treatment. It was operated in fed-batch flow mode at 1–3 days of HRT with 755 mg/L COD_IN and 0.76 kg-COD/m³/day. The study includes anaerobic-MFC and aerobic-MFC integrated systems. Microbial electrode jacket dish (MEJ-dish) with hybrid dimension (HD) was invented, first time to authors’ knowledge, to boost anode biofilm growth. The treatment system with MEJ+ (FAB) and MEJ− (MFC) anode are called FAB–MFC and MFC, respectively.

Results

Fragmented variable anode biofilm thickness was observed in FAB than MFC. The FAB–MFC (FAB+) simple technique increases the anode biofilm thickness by ~ 5 times MFC. Due to HD the anode biofilm was fragmented in FAB+ system than MFC. At the end of each treatment cycle, voltage drops. All FAB+ integrated systems reduced voltage drop relative to MFC. FAB reduces voltage drops better than MFC in anaerobic-MFC from 6 to 20 mV and aerobic-MFC from 35–47 mV at 1 kΩ external load. The highest power density was achieved by FAB in anaerobic-MFC (FAB = 104 mW/m², MFC = 98 mW/m²) and aerobic-MFC integrated system (FAB = 59 mW/m², MFC = 42 mW/m²).

Conclusions

The ∆COD and CE between FAB and MFC could not be concluded because both setups were inserted in the same reactor. The integrated system COD removal (78–97%) was higher than the solitary MFC treatment (68–78%). This study findings support the FAB+ integrated system could be applied for real applications and improve performance. However, it might depend on influent COD, the microbial nature, and ∆COD in FAB+ and MFC, which requires further study.

Graphic abstract

Keywords

Microbial fuel cell / Fragmented anode biofilm reactor (FAB) / Electroactive biofilm (EAB) / Anode surface area / Microbial electrode jacket dish (MEJ-dish)

References

[1] Abbassi R, Yadav AK, Khan F, Garaniya V (2020) Integrated microbial fuel cells for wastewater treatment. Butterworth-Heinemann, MA, United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2017-0-03157-9

[2] Ahn Y, Logan BE. Effectiveness of domestic wastewater treatment using microbial fuel cells at ambient and mesophilic temperatures. Bioresour Technol, 2010, 101: 469-475.

[3] Angelaalincy MJ, Navanietha Krishnaraj R, Shakambari G, Ashokkumar B, Kathiresan S, Varalakshmi P (2018) Biofilm engineering approaches for improving the performance ofmicrobial fuel cells and bioelectrochemical systems Frontiers in Energy Research 6:63. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2018.00063

[4] APHA (2005) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. 21st edn. American Public Health Association (APHA), American Water Works Association (AWWA), and Water Environment Federation (WEF), Washington DC, USA

[5] Arbianti R, Utami TS, Leondo V, Putri AS, Hermansyah H (2018) Effect of biofilm and selective mixed culture on microbial fuel cell for the treatment of tempeh industrial wastewater MS&E 316:012073. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/316/1/012073

[6] Atnafu T, Leta S. New fragmented electro-active biofilm (FAB) reactor to increase anode surface area and performance of microbial fuel cell. Environmental Systems Research, 2021, 10: 31.

[7] Bakke R, Kommedal R, Kalvenes S. Quantification of biofilm accumulation by an optical approach. J Microbiol Methods, 2001, 44: 13-26.

[8] Bose D, Dhawan H, Kandpal V, Vijay P, Gopinath M. Sustainable power generation from sewage and energy recovery from wastewater with variable resistance using microbial fuel cell. Enzyme Microb Technol, 2018, 118: 92-101.

[9] Brown RK, Harnisch F, Dockhorn T, Schröder U. Examining sludge production in bioelectrochemical systems treating domestic wastewater. Bioresour Technol, 2015, 198: 913-917.

[10] Chen X, Cui D, Wang X, Wang X, Li W. Porous carbon with defined pore size as anode of microbial fuel cell. Biosens Bioelectron, 2015, 69: 135-141.

[11] Chen F, Zeng S, Luo Z, Ma J, Zhu Q, Zhang S. A novel MBBR–MFC integrated system for high-strength pulp/paper wastewater treatment and bioelectricity generation. Sep Sci Technol, 2019, 55: 2490-2499.

[12] Choudhury P, Prasad Uday US, Bandyopadhyay TK, Ray RN, Bhunia B. Performance improvement of microbial fuel cell (MFC) using suitable electrode and bioengineered organisms: a review. Bioengineered, 2017, 8: 471-487.

[13] Comeau Y (2008) Microbial metabolism. In: Henze M, Loosdrecht V, MC M, Ekama GA, Brdjanovic D (eds) Biological wastewater treatment: principles, modelling and design. IWA Publishing, London, UK, pp 10–32

[14] Di Lorenzo M, Scott K, Curtis TP, Head IM. Effect of increasing anode surface area on the performance of a single chamber microbial fuel. Cell Chem Eng J, 2010, 156: 40-48.

[15] Gajaraj S, Hu Z. Integration of microbial fuel cell techniques into activated sludge wastewater treatment processes to improve nitrogen removal and reduce sludge production. Chemosphere, 2014, 117: 151-157.

[16] Goto Y, Yoshida N. Scaling up microbial fuel cells for treating swine wastewater. Water, 2019, 11: 1803.

[17] He L, Du P, Chen Y, Lu H, Cheng X, Chang B, Wang Z. Advances in microbial fuel cells for wastewater treatment. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 2017, 71: 388-403.

[18] Heidrich ES, Curtis TP, Dolfing J. Determination of the internal chemical energy of wastewater. Environ Sci Technol, 2011, 45: 827-832.

[19] Ishii SI, Suzuki S, Yamanaka Y, Wu A, Nealson KH, Bretschger O. Population dynamics of electrogenic microbial communities in microbial fuel cells started with three different inoculum sources. Bioelectrochemistry, 2017, 117: 74-82.

[20] Kalathil S, Nguyen VH, Shim JJ, Khan MM, Lee J, Cho MH. Enhanced performance of a microbial fuel cell using CNT/MnO2 nanocomposite as a bioanode material. J Nanosci Nanotechnol, 2013, 13: 7712-7716.

[21] Kim K-Y, Yang W, Logan BE. Impact of electrode configurations on retention time and domestic wastewater treatment efficiency using microbial fuel cells. Water Res, 2015, 80: 41-46.

[22] Kim K-Y, Yang W, Evans PJ, Logan BE. Continuous treatment of high strength wastewaters using air-cathode microbial fuel cells. Bioresour Technol, 2016, 221: 96-101.

[23] Lee H-S, Torres CI, Rittmann BE. Effects of substrate diffusion and anode potential on kinetic parameters for anode-respiring bacteria. Environ Sci Technol, 2009, 43: 7571-7577.

[24] Li W-W, Yu H-Q, He Z. Towards sustainable wastewater treatment by using microbial fuel cells-centered technologies. Energy Environ Sci, 2013, 7: 911-924.

[25] Li Y, Liu L, Yang F, Ren N. Performance of carbon fiber cathode membrane with C-Mn–Fe–O catalyst in MBR–MFC for wastewater treatment. J Membr Sci, 2015, 484: 27-34.

[26] Li C, Lesnik KL, Fan Y, Liu H. Millimeter scale electron conduction through exoelectrogenic mixed species biofilms. FEMS Microbiol Lett, 2016, 363: 153.

[27] Lin H, Wu S, Miller C, Zhu J (2013) Electricity generation and nutrients removal from high-strength liquid manure by air-cathode microbial fuel cells. J Environ Sci Health Part A 1. https://doi.org/10.1080/10934529.2015.1094342

[28] Liu H, Logan BE. Electricity generation using an air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell in the presence and absence of a proton exchange membrane. Environ Sci Technol, 2004, 38: 4040-4046.

[29] Liu H, Ramnarayanan R, Logan BE. Production of electricity during wastewater treatment using a single chamber microbial fuel cell. Environ Sci Technol, 2004, 38: 2281-2285.

[30] Liu F, Sun L, Wan J, Tang A, Deng M, Wu R. Organic matter and ammonia removal by a novel integrated process of constructed wetland and microbial fuel cells RSC. Advances, 2019, 9: 5384-5393.

[31] Logan BE. Microbial fuel cells, 2008, Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley.

[32] Logan BE, Regan JM. Microbial fuel cells—challenges and applications. Environ Sci Technol, 2006, 40: 5172-5180.

[33] Lovley DR. Microbial energizers: fuel cells that keep on going Microbe-American Society for. Microbiology, 2006, 1: 323-334.

[34] Lu N, Zhou S-G, Zhuang L, Zhang J-T, Ni J-R. Electricity generation from starch processing wastewater using microbial fuel cell technology. Biochem Eng J, 2009, 43: 246-251.

[35] Malaeb L, Katuri KP, Logan BE, Maab H, Nunes SP, Saikaly PE. A hybrid microbial fuel cell membrane bioreactor with a conductive ultrafiltration membrane biocathode for wastewater treatment. Environ Sci Technol, 2013, 47: 11821-11828.

[36] Malvankar NS, . Tunable metallic-like conductivity in microbial nanowire networks. Nat Nanotechnol, 2011, 6: 573-579.

[37] Millo D. An electrochemical strategy to measure the thickness of electroactive microbial biofilms. ChemElectroChem, 2015, 2: 288-291.

[38] Min B, Cheng S, Logan BE. Electricity generation using membrane and salt bridge microbial fuel cells. Water Res, 2005, 39: 1675-1686.

[39] Munoz-Cupa C, Hu Y, Xu C, Bassi A. An overview of microbial fuel cell usage in wastewater treatment, resource recovery and energy production. Sci Total Environ, 2021, 754: 142429.

[40] Nakamura R, Kai F, Okamoto A, Newton GJ, Hashimoto K. Self-constructed electrically conductive bacterial networks. Angew Chem Int Ed, 2009, 48: 508-511.

[41] Nevin KP, . Power output and columbic efficiencies from biofilms of Geobacter sulfurreducens comparable to mixed community microbial fuel cells. Environ Microbiol, 2008, 10: 2505-2514.

[42] Ng HY et al (2006) Integrated anaerobic and aerobic processes for treatment of municipal wastewater. In: Water Environment Federation 3205–3216

[43] Nosek D, Jachimowicz P, Cydzik-Kwiatkowska A. Anode modification as an alternative approach to improve electricity generation in microbial fuel cells. Energies, 2020, 13: 6596.

[44] Oh SE, Logan BE. Voltage reversal during microbial fuel cell stack operation. J Power Sources, 2007, 167: 11-17.

[45] Piculell M, Welander P, Jönsson K, Welander T. Evaluating the effect of biofilm thickness on nitrification in moving bed biofilm reactors. Environ Technol, 2015, 37: 732-743.

[46] Read ST, Dutta P, Bond PL, Keller J, Rabaey K. Initial development and structure of biofilms on microbial fuel cell anodes. BMC Microbiol, 2010, 10(98): 1-10.

[47] Ren L, Ahn Y, Logan BE. A two-stage microbial fuel cell and anaerobic fluidized bed membrane bioreactor (MFC-AFMBR) system for effective domestic wastewater treatment. Environ Sci Technol, 2014, 48: 4199-4206.

[48] Rodrigo MA, Cañizares P, Lobato J, Paz R, Sáez C, Linares JJ. Production of electricity from the treatment of urban waste water using a microbial fuel cell. J Power Sources, 2007, 169: 198-204.

[49] Santoro C, Arbizzani C, Erable B, Ieropoulos I. Microbial fuel cells: from fundamentals to applications. A review. J Power Sources, 2017, 356: 225-244.

[50] Sayed ET, . A carbon-cloth anode electroplated with iron nanostructure for microbial fuel cell operated with real Wastewater. Sustainability, 2020, 12: 6538.

[51] Sevda S, Sreekrishnan TR. Effect of salt concentration and mediators in salt bridge microbial fuel cell for electricity generation from synthetic wastewater. J Environ Sci Health Part A Toxic/hazardous Substances Environ Eng, 2012, 47: 878-886.

[52] Stoll Z, Dolfing J, Xu P. Minimum performance requirements for microbial fuel cells to achieve energy-neutral wastewater treatment. Water, 2018, 10: 243.

[53] Strycharz S, Tender L. Reply to the ‘Comment on “On electrical conductivity of microbial nanowires and biofilms”’ by N. S. Malvankar, M. T. Tuominen and D. R. Lovley, Energy Environ. Sci., 2012, 5, DOI: 10.1039/c2ee02613a. Energy Environ Sci, 2012, 5: 6250-6255.

[54] Su X, Tian Y, Sun Z, Lu Y, Li Z. Performance of a combined system of microbial fuel cell and membrane bioreactor: wastewater treatment, sludge reduction, energy recovery and membrane fouling. Biosens Bioelectron, 2013, 49: 92-98.

[55] Sun D, Chen J, Huang H, Liu W, Ye Y, Cheng S. The effect of biofilm thickness on electrochemical activity of Geobacter sulfurreducens. Int J Hydrogen Energy, 2016, 41: 16523-16528.

[56] Vicari F, D'Angelo A, Galia A, Quatrini P, Scialdone O. A single-chamber membraneless microbial fuel cell exposed to air using Shewanella putrefaciens. J Electroanal Chem, 2016, 783: 268-273.

[57] Wang X, Wang G, Hao M. Modeling of the bacillus subtilis bacterial biofilm growing on an agar substrate. Comput Math Methods Med, 2015, 2015.

[58] Wei J, Liang P, Huang X. Recent progress in electrodes for microbial fuel cells. Bioresour Technol, 2011, 102: 9335-9344.

[59] Wen Q, Wu Y, Cao D, Zhao L, Sun Q. Electricity generation and modeling of microbial fuel cell from continuous beer brewery wastewater. Bioresour Technol, 2009, 100: 4171-4175.

[60] Xu L, Zhao Y, Doherty L, Hu Y, Hao X. The integrated processes for wastewater treatment based on the principle of microbial fuel cells: a review. Crit Rev Environ Sci Technol, 2016, 46: 60-91.

[61] Yadav AK, Dash P, Mohanty A, Abbassi R, Mishra BK. Performance assessment of innovative constructed wetland-microbial fuel cell for electricity production and dye removal. Ecol Eng, 2012, 47: 126-131.

[62] Ye Y, . Effect of organic loading rate on the recovery of nutrients and energy in a dual-chamber microbial fuel cell. Bioresour Technol, 2019, 281: 367-373.

[63] You SJ, Zhao QL, Jiang JQ, Zhang JN. Treatment of domestic wastewater with simultaneous electricity generation in microbial fuel cell under continuous operation. Chem Biochem Eng Q, 2006, 20: 407-412.

[64] You J, Walter XA, Greenman J, Melhuish C, Ieropoulos I. Stability and reliability of anodic biofilms under different feedstock conditions: towards microbial fuel sensors. Cell Sens Sens Bio-Sens Res, 2015, 6: 43-50.

[65] Yu J, Park Y, Widyaningsih E, Kim S, Kim Y, Lee T. Microbial fuel cells: devices for real 23 wastewater treatment, rather than electricity production. Sci Total Environ, 2021, 775: 145904.

[66] Yu J, Seon J, Park Y, Cho S, Lee T. Electricity generation and microbial community in a submerged-exchangeable microbial fuel cell system for low-strength domestic wastewater treatment. Bioresour Technol, 2012, 117: 172-179.

[67] Yu Y-Y, Zhai D-D, Si R-W, Sun J-Z, Liu X, Yong Y-C. Three-dimensional electrodes for high-performance bioelectrochemical systems. Int J Mol Sci, 2017, 18: 90.

[68] Yuan Y, Zhou L, Hou R, Wang Y, Zhou S. Centimeter-long microbial electron transport for bioremediation applications. Trends Biotechnol, 2020, 39: 181-193.

[69] Zhang B, Zhao H, Zhou S, Shi C, Wang C, Ni J. A novel UASB–MFC–BAF integrated system for high strength molasses wastewater treatment and bioelectricity generation. Bioresour Technol, 2009, 100: 5687-5693.

[70] Zhang F, Ge Z, Grimaud J, Hurst J, He Z. Long-term performance of liter-scale microbial fuel cells treating primary effluent installed in a municipal wastewater treatment facility. Environ Sci Technol, 2013, 47: 4941-4948.

[71] Zhou M, Chi M, Wang H, Jin T. Anode modification by electrochemical oxidation: a new practical method to improve the performance of microbial fuel cells. Biochem Eng J, 2012, 60: 151-155.

[72] Zhu F, Wang W, Zhang X, Tao G. Electricity generation in a membrane-less microbial fuel cell with down-flow feeding onto the cathode. Bioresour Technol, 2011, 102: 7324-7328.