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Minimum Performance Requirements for Microbial Fuel Cells to Achieve Energy-Neutral Wastewater Treatment

Lookup NU author(s): Zach Stoll, Dr Jan DolfingORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

© 2018 by the authors. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have recently achieved energy-positive wastewater treatment at pilot scale. Despite these achievements, there is still a limited understanding as to whether all wastewaters contain sufficient amounts of energy and, if so, whether MFCs can capture a sufficient amount of energy to offset electrical energy requirements in the wastewater treatment process. Currently, there are no tools or methods available that can determine whether an MFC can be energy-neutral a priori. To address this, we derived a simple relationship by setting the electrical energy requirements of a wastewater treatment facility equal to the net energy output of the MFC, such that the resulting expression describes the minimum chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal needed to achieve energy-neutral treatment. The resulting equation is simply a function of electrical energy requirements, Coulombic Efficiency, and cell voltage. This work provides the first ever quantitative method for determining if the MFCs are feasible to achieve energy-neutral treatment for a given wastewater and what level of performance is needed.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Stoll ZA, Dolfing J, Xu P

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Water

Year: 2018

Volume: 10

Issue: 3

Online publication date: 27/02/2018

Acceptance date: 24/02/2018

Date deposited: 12/03/2018

ISSN (electronic): 2073-4441

Publisher: MDPI AG

URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/w10030243

DOI: 10.3390/w10030243

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