A quantitative evaluation method for wastewater toxicity based on a microbial fuel cell

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) was successfully developed as a toxicity biomonitoring system to enable a quick response to wastewater with unknown toxicity in toxic events. The objective was to quantitatively assess the toxicity of wastewater by a rapid method. Different concentrations of formaldehyde were introduced into the anode chamber, which led to different stages of voltage change. A relationship between the linear slope of the voltage drop stage and the formaldehyde concentration was established through dose-response fitting results. This relationship makes it possible to convert an unknown toxicity of wastewater into the equivalent concentration of formaldehyde. The minimum detection limit in this study was 13 mg/L formaldehyde equivalents. As the toxicity of the wastewater increased, the test time could be reduced to as low as 921 s or even shorter, with a detection error of 3-12 mg/L. By using this evaluation method, oxidized tail gas scrubber wastewater was identified as the main toxic wastewater component in a phenol acetone production plant.