Simultaneous treatment and energy production from PIW using electro coagulation & microbial fuel cell

The present work deals with the treatment and simultaneous energy generation from paper industries wastewater (PIW) using electro coagulation (EC) and microbial fuel cell (MFC). The PIW is first treated by EC, which improves the biodegradability index (BI) of PIW, which is then used as a raw material for the MFC process. It has been observed that the PIW with initial organic loadings of 2400 mg/L, 750 mg/L, and 5600 mg/L can be treated using EC, MFC and EC followed by MFC respectively, to achieve the effluent under permissible limit. Under the experimental conditions, during the EC process, approximately 1.29 kJ/g and 8.62 kJ/g of energy can be generated from sludge and scum, respectively and approximately 56 mV voltage and 0.02 mA current can be generated from the continuous MFC process. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.