Chinese Journal of Catalysis

Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2015, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (7): 1068-1076.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(15)60833-6

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Electricity production by a microbial fuel cell fueled by brewery wastewater and the factors in its membrane deterioration

Af?in Y. Çetinkayaa, Emre O?uz Köro?lua, Neslihan Manav Demira, Derya Y?lmaz Baysoyb, Bestamin Özkayaa,c, Mehmet Çakmakç?a   

  1. a Department of Environmental Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey;
    b Department of Physics, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey;
    c Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland
  • Received:2014-12-29 Revised:2015-03-01 Online:2015-06-12 Published:2015-07-30
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by Scientific Research Project Coordination of Yildiz Technical University (2012-05-02-KAP06).

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Abstract:

Electricity production from brewery wastewater using dual-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs) with a tin-coated copper mesh in the anode was investigated by changing the hydraulic retention time (HRT). The MFCs were fed with wastewater samples from the inlet (inflow, MFC-1) and outlet (outflow, MFC-2) of an anaerobic digester of a brewery wastewater treatment plant. Both chemical oxygen demand removal and current density were improved by decreasing HRT. The best MFC performance was with an HRT of 0.5 d. The maximum power densities of 8.001 and 1.843 μW/cm2 were obtained from reactors MFC-1 and MFC-2, respectively. Microbial diversity at different conditions was studied using PCR-DGGE profiling of 16S rRNA fragments of the microorganisms from the biofilm on the anode electrode. The MFC reactor had mainly Geobacter, Shewanella, and Clostridium species, and some bacteria were easily washed out at lower HRTs. The fouling characteristics of the MFC Nafion membrane and the resulting degradation of MFC performance were examined. The ion exchange capacity, conductivity, and diffusivity of the membrane decreased significantly after fouling. The morphology of the Nafion membrane and MFC degradation were studied using scanning electron microscopy and attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

Key words: Biofilm, Wastewater treatment, Anaerobic processe, Microbial fuel cell, Microbial community