Greenhouse Gas Control, Biofuel Recovery, and Nutrients Removal in Single-Chamber Microalgal Biocathode Microbial Fuel Cells
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 149, Issue 9
Abstract
In view of the current bottlenecks of low nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiency and high cathode cost of microbial fuel cells (MFCs), this study constructed single-chamber biocathode MFCs to carry out related research. Single-chamber MFCs with microalgae were fabricated, and nitrogen removal efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) were investigated. The results indicated that algae MFCs could significantly reduce GHG (, , and ) emissions through the competition of electron donor and sequestrating atmospheric . Compared with the control group, the microalgal MFC significantly promoted the removal of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP). The highest open-circuit voltage (0.33 V) and power density () were observed in the closed circuit with algae (CC) reactor. Running MFC significantly increased the biomass of algae and produced good quality of biofuel. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) analysis indicated that gene copies in the CC reactor ( copies ) were significantly higher than those of the no algae (NA) and CC reactors, while the lowest denitrifying gene copies (, , and ) were observed in the NA reactor. The Chloroflexi (22%) and Proteobacteria (31%) were the predominant bacterial communities in the CC reactor. Geobacter and Desulfobulbus were the main genera of exoelectrogens. This study can provide reference for nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus) removal and GHG control in MFC wastewater treatment, but its long-term stability needs to be further studied.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51808363), Chengdu Science and Technology Bureau (2019-YF05-00839-SN), and Dujiangyan Bureau of Economy, Technology and Information (2020NY02).
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 149 • Issue 9 • September 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 19, 2023
Accepted: Apr 27, 2023
Published online: Jul 11, 2023
Published in print: Sep 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Dec 11, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- [Inorganic compounds]
- Biomass
- Carbon compounds
- Carbon dioxide
- Chemical compounds
- Chemical elements
- Chemicals
- Chemistry
- Ecosystems
- Energy engineering
- Energy sources (by type)
- Environmental engineering
- Fuels
- Microbes
- Nitrogen
- Non-renewable energy
- Nutrient pollution
- Organic compounds
- Organisms
- Pollution
- Renewable energy
- Thermal pollution
- Vegetation
- Water pollution
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