Efficient treatment of aniline containing wastewater in bipolar membrane microbial electrolysis cell-Fenton system

Aniline-containing wastewater can cause significant environmental problems and threaten the humans's life. However, rapid degradation of aniline with cost-efficient methods remains a challenge. In this work, a novel microbial electrolysis cell with bipolar membrane was integrated with Fenton reaction (MEC-Fenton) for efficient treatment of real wastewater containing a high concentration (4460 +/- 52 mg L-1) of aniline. In this system, H2O2 was in situ electro-synthesized from O-2 reduction on the graphite cathode and was simultaneously used as source of (OH)-O-center dot for the oxidation of aniline wastewater under an acidic condition maintained by the bipolar membrane. The aniline was effectively degraded following first order kinetics at a rate constant of 0.0166 h(-1) under an applied voltage of 0.5 V. Meanwhile, a total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency of 93.1 +/- 1.2% was obtained, revealing efficient mineralization of aniline. The applicability of bipolar membrane MEC-Fenton system was successfully demonstrated with actual aniline wastewater. Moreover, energy balance showed that the system could be a promising technology for removal of biorefractory organic pollutants from wastewaters. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.