Development of microbial fuel cell with anoxic/oxic design for treatment of saline seafood wastewater and biological electricity generation

BACKGROUND: Sustainable technologies need to be developed to treat saline seafood wastewater (SSW) efficiently. This study focused on the feasibility of a continuously operated microbial fuel cell (MFC) with modified anoxic/oxic (A/O) architecture (A/O-MFC) for power generation and treatment of SSW simultaneously. RESULTS: Hydraulic retention time (HRT) was shown to have an impact on polarization and power output of the A/O-MFC and the maximum power density of 16.2 W m(-3) was obtained at a current density of 41.7 A m(-3) and HRT of 4.2 h. High salinity together with advective flow mode enabled a low and constant internal resistance of approximately 100 Si throughout the experiments. Besides, pH of waste stream in both compartments was found always near neutral level. Increasing HRT could improve eliminability of soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) and biological nitrification. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a proof-in-concept demonstration to utilize an MFC for effective and sustainable treatment of SSW along with recovery of electrical energy. (C) 2010 Society of Chemical Industry