ABSTRACT
Agro-industry wastewaters normally contain high levels of organic matter and require suitable treatment before discharge. The use of Microbial fuel cells, a novel wastewater treatment, can provide advantages over existing treatment methods. In this study, an up-flow bio-filter circuit (UBFC) for treating wastewaters without chemical treatment or nutrient supplement, was developed to solve a clogging problem. The optimal conditions included an organic loading rate of 30.0 g COD/L-d, hydraulic retention time of 1.04 day, pH level of 5.6-6.5 and aeration at 2.0 L/min. External resistance of the circuit was tested. COD removal levels of 8.08, 20.1 and 26.67 g COD/L-d were obtained, while fed with sea food, biodiesel and palm oil mill wastewater, respectively. These rates are higher than for conventional technologies. The carbon fiber brush immobilized base increased the performance of the new UBFC by 17.54% over that obtained in a previous study, while the cost was slightly decreased about 4.48%.
Subject(s)
Bioelectric Energy Sources , Wastewater , Water Pollutants, Chemical/chemistry , Water Purification/methods , Biofuels , Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis , Bioreactors , Carbon/chemistry , Carbon Fiber , Catalysis , Equipment Design , Fermentation , Filtration , Food Industry , Hydrogen-Ion Concentration , Industrial Waste , Palm Oil , Plant Oils , Seafood , Waste Disposal, Fluid/methodsABSTRACT
A biodiesel wastewater treatment technology was investigated for neutral alkalinity and COD removal by microbial fuel cell. An upflow bio-filter circuit (UBFC), a kind of biocatalyst MFC was renovated and reinvented. The developed system was combined with a pre-fermented (PF) and an influent adjusted (IA) procedure. The optimal conditions were operated with an organic loading rate (OLR) of 30.0 g COD/L-day, hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1.04 day, maintained at pH level 6.5-7.5 and aerated at 2.0 L/min. An external resistance of circuit was set at 10 kΩ. The purposed process could improve the quality of the raw wastewater and obtained high efficiency of COD removal of 15.0 g COD/L-day. Moreover, the cost of UBFC system was only US$1775.7/m3 and the total power consumption was 0.152 kW/kg treated COD. The overall advantages of this invention are suitable for biodiesel wastewater treatment.
