Performance of a continuous flow microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) fed with domestic wastewater
2012
Escapa, A. | Gil-Carrera, L. | García, V. | Morán, A.
In this study, MEC performance was investigated in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, hydrogen production rate and energy consumption during continuous domestic wastewater (dWW) treatment at different organic loading rates (OLR) and applied voltages (Vₐₚₚ). While the COD removal efficiency was improved at low OLRs, the electrical energy required to remove 1g of COD was significantly increased with decreasing the OLR. Hydrogen production exhibited a Monod-type trend as function of the OLR reaching a maximum production rate of 0.30L/(Lrd). Optimal Vₐₚₚ was found to be highly dependent on the strength of the dWW. The results also confirmed the fact that MEC performance can be optimized by setting Vₐₚₚ at the onset potential of the diffusion control region. Although low columbic efficiencies and the occurrence of hydrogen recycling limited significantly the reactor performance, these results demonstrate that MEC can be successfully used for dWW treatment.
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