Resource recovery microbial fuel cells for urine-containing wastewater treatment without external energy consumption

Resources in urine-containing wastewater are useful if recovered as nutrients. In this study, a three-chamber resource recovery microbial fuel cell (RRMFC) is proposed to treat synthetic urine-containing wastewater with various organic pollutants and recover N, P, and S nutrients. In the treatment, urea hydrolysis was increased by microbial and electrical processes. Ions migration driven by the self-generated electric field was used to recover nutrients from the wastewater. Over one cycle (similar to 3 days), 99% of urea, 97% of COD, 99% of histidine, 91% of creatinine, 99% of sodium acetate, 98% of SO42-, and 99% of PO43- were removed from the wastewater, and at the same time, 42% of total nitrogen, 37% of PO43-, 59% of SO42-, and 33% of total salts were recovered in the middle chamber. This technology is very attractive for sustainable resource recovery from urine-containing wastewater.