Pecologix Political Ecology Blotter

Nitrogen recovery through NH3 stripping is energy intensive and requires large amounts of chemicals. Therefore, a microbial fuel cell was developed to simultaneously produce energy and recover ammonium. The applied microbial fuel cell used a gas diffusion cathode. The ammonium transport to the cathode occurred due to migration of ammonium and diffusion of ammonia. In [...]

An energy efficient method of concurrent hydrogen gas and struvite (MgNH4PO4·6H2O) production was investigated based on bioelectrochemically driven struvite crystallization at the cathode of a single chamber microbial electrolysis struvite-precipitation cell (MESC). The MESC cathodes were either stainless steel 304 mesh or flat plates. Phosphate removal ranged from 20% to 40%, with higher removals obtained [...]

Microbial carbon capture cells (MCCs) were constructed with cyanobacteria growing in a photo biocathode in dual-chambered flat plate mediator-less MFCs separated by an anion exchange membrane from the anode compartment containing Shewanella putrefaciens. The performance of the MCC with Anabaena sparged with CO2–air mixture was compared with that of a conventional cathode sparged with air only. The power [...]

Fermentative hydrogen production from waste activated sludge (WAS) has low H2 yield because WAS contains limited amounts of carbohydrate suitable for use by hydrogen-producing bacteria. Here, augmentation of hydrogen production from WAS by microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) was implemented. H2 yields of 3.89 ± 0.39 mg-H2/g-DS (5.67 ± 0.61 mg-H2/g-VSS) from raw WAS and 6.78 ± 0.94 mg-H2/g-DS (15.08 ± 1.41 mg-H2/g-VSS) from alkaline-pretreated WAS were obtained [...]

Wastewaters from potato-processing industries have been traditionally treated by a sequence of steps that include the production of methane as the anaerobic one. This work explores the feasibility of replacing or supplementing methanogenesis with the emerging technology of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Electricity producing biofilms have been enriched from a real anaerobic sludge, and the [...]

A sediment-type photomicrobial fuel cell (PFC), based on the synergistic interaction between microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) and electrochemically active bacteria, was developed to remove carbon and nutrients from wastewater, and produce electricity and algal biomass simultaneously. Under illumination, a stable power density of 68 ± 5 mW m−2 and a biomass of 0.56 ± 0.02 g [...]

► Solid phase microbial fuel cell (SMFC) was designed to integrate solid state fermentation with simultaneous bioelectricity generation. ► Single chambered SMFC with non-catalyzed graphite electrodes was evaluated with and without membrane varying electrode configurations. ► SMFC performance was evaluated with food waste as anolyte based on bio-electrochemical behavior. ► Sodium carbonate amendment showed enhancement [...]