Reutilize tire in microbial fuel cell for enhancing the nitrogen removal of the anammox process coupled with iron-carbon micro-electrolysis

Highlights

• MFC promoted the nitrogen removal of anammox with Fe-C micro-electrolysis.

• Reutilize pyrolysis waste tire as micro-electrolysis and electrode materials.

• Total nitrogen removal efficiency of modified MFC increased to 85.00%.

• Candidatus kuenenia and SM1A02 were major genera responsible for nitrogen removal.

Abstract

In this study, microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were explored to promote the nitrogen removal performance of combined anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) and Fe-C micro-electrolysis (CAE) systems. The average total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency of the modified MFC system was 85.00%, while that of the anammox system was 62.16%. Additionally, the effective operation time of this system increased from six (CAE system alone) to over 50 days, significantly promoting TN removal. The enhanced performance could be attributed to the electron transferred from the anode to the cathode, which aided in reducing nitrate/nitrite in denitrification. The H⁺ released through the proton exchange membrane caused a decrease in the pH, facilitating Fe corrosion. The pyrolyzed waste tire used as the cathode could immobilize microorganisms, enhance electron transport, and produce a natural Fe-C micro-electrolysis system. According to the microbial community analysis, Candidatus kuenenia was the major genus involved in the anammox process. Furthermore, the SM1A02 genus exhibited the highest abundance and was enriched the fastest, and could be a novel potential strain that aids the anammox process.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Waste tire / MFCs / Micro-electrolysis / Anammox / Feammox

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Scientific and Technological Project of Shanxi Province (Nos. 201903D321057 and 201903D321055), by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51708386 and 21501129), by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2016M601290), and the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China (Major Science and Technology Program, Nos. 2019YFC0408601 and 2019YFC0408602).

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