Application of microbial fuel cell for simultaneous treatment of metallurgical and municipal wastewater - а laboratory study

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a hybrid technology that produces electricity and recovers resources from wastewater through biocatalytic and electrochemical reactions. Metallurgical facilities in Bor, Serbia, are a source of copper-rich metallurgical wastewater, and the Town of Bor is a source of municipal wastewater rich in organic matter. The aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility of application of MFC for the treatment of metallurgical and municipal wastewater that are released into the Bor River in Serbia. A prototype of MFC was constructed for this study, and 3 sets of experiments were performed using model solutions and real wastewater. Copper was successfully removed from the treated model solution with 99.42 % efficiency. Solid copper particles were obtained with a particle size of about 1 μm. Maximum chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate of 191.7 mg L-1 h-1 was observed in the anodic compartment. The impact of this study is significant because MFC was implemented for the simultaneous treatment of two types of wastewaters, one containing metals and the other containing organic matter, and both types of wastewater are released into the same river.

Keywords

• bor river
• copper
• organic matter
• bacteria
• electrochemical
• prototype