Effect of modified anode on bioenergy harvesting and nutrients removal in a microbial nutrient recovery cell

The microbial nutrient recovery cell i.e. modified microbial fuel cell containing a middle recovery chamber can be used to purify wastewater and remove valuable nutrients, while simultaneously generating electricity. The study investigated nutrient removal and microorganism interactions with carbon (CB- HT and CB- APTES) and stainless steel (SSB-HT) modified anodes used in microbial nutrient recovery cells. The removal efficiencies of ammonium ions were found higher in carbon-based CB-APTES (-98%) and CB-HT (-98.27%) systems in comparison to SSB-HT (-87.16%) system. On comparing further, the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (-99.5%) and total phosphorus (-99%) in CB- APTES system were superior to the cases of CB- HT, and SSB- HT systems. Besides, the CB-APTES based microbial fuel cell (MFC) displayed an average stable voltage of 0.5 V and a maximum power density of - 850 mW/m(2).

Automated summary

The study found that microbial nutrient recovery cells with carbon-modified electrodes showed superior efficiency in removing ammonium ions and chemical oxygen demand, with stable voltage and high power density.