Enhanced wastewater treatment efficiency through microbially catalyzed oxidation and reduction: Synergistic effect of biocathode microenvironment

Microbially catalyzed treatment of wastewater was evaluated in both the anode and cathode chambers in dual chambered microbial fuel cell (MFC) under varying biocathode microenvironment. MFC operation with aerobic biocathode showed significant increment in both TDS (cathode, 90.2 +/- 1%; anode, 39.7 0.5%) and substrate (cathode, 98.07 +/- 0.06%; anode, 96.2 +/- 0.3%) removal compared to anaerobic biocathode and abiotic cathode operations (COD, 80.25 +/- 0.3%; TDS, 30.5 +/- 1.2%). Microbially catalyzed reduction of protons and electrons at cathode will be higher during aerobic biocathode operation which leads to gradual substrate removal resulting in stable bio-potential for longer periods facilitating salts removal. Bio-electro catalytic behavior showed higher exchange current density during aerobic biocathode operation resulting in induced electrochemical oxidation which supports the enhanced treatment. Anaerobic biocathode operation depicted relatively less TDS removal (anode, 16.35%; cathode, 16.04%) in both the chambers in spite of good substrate degradation (anode, 84%; cathode, 87.39%). Both the chambers during anaerobic biocathode operation competed as electron donors resulting in negligible bio-potential development. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.