Abstract
A range of wastewaters and substrates were examined using mini microbial electrolysis cells (mini MECs) to see if they could be used to predict the performance of larger-scale cube MECs. COD removals and coulombic efficiencies corresponded well between the two reactor designs for individual samples, with 66-92% of COD removed for all samples. Current generation was consistent between the reactor types for acetate (AC) and fermentation effluent (FE) samples, but less consistent with industrial (IW) and domestic wastewaters (DW). Hydrogen was recovered from all samples in cube MECs, but gas composition and volume varied significantly between samples. Evidence for direct conversion of substrate to methane was observed with two of the industrial wastewater samples (IW-1 and IW-3). Overall, mini MECs provided organic treatment data that corresponded well with larger scale reactor results, and therefore it was concluded that they can be a useful platform for screening wastewater sources. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 530-537 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Bioresource Technology |
| Volume | 170 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-11-003-13
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (APCI) and Pin-Ching Maness and Lauren Magnusson at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) for providing effluent samples. This work was supported by Department of Energy Cooperative Agreement DE-EE0005750 and award KUS-11-003-13 from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.