Augmenting Microbial Fuel Cell power by coupling with Supported Liquid Membrane permeation for zinc recovery.

Simultaneous removal of organic and zinc contamination in parallel effluent streams using a Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) would deliver a means of reducing environmental pollution whilst also recovering energy. A Microbial Fuel Cell system has been integrated with Supported Liquid Membrane (SLM) technology to simultaneously treat organic- and heavy metal containing wastewaters. The MFC anode was fed with synthetic wastewater containing 10 mM acetate, the MFC cathode chambers were fed with 400 mg L(-1) Zn(2+) and this then acted as a feed phase for SLM extraction. The MFC/SLM combination produces a synergistic effect which enhances the power performance of the MFC significantly; 0.233 mW compared to 0.094 mW in the control. It is shown that the 165 ± 7 mV difference between the MFC/SLM system and the MFC control is attributable to the lower cathode pH in the integrated system experiment, the consequent lower activation overpotential and higher oxygen reduction potential. The change in the substrate removal efficiency and Coulombic Efficiency (CE) compared to controls is small. Apart from the electrolyte conductivity, the conductivities of the bipolar and liquid membrane were also found to increase during operation. The diffusion coefficient of Zn(2+) through the liquid membrane in the MFC/SLM (4.26*10(-10) m(2) s(-1)) is comparable to the SLM control (5.41*10(-10) m(2) s(-1)). The system demonstrates that within 72 h, 93  ±  4% of the zinc ions are removed from the feed phase, hence the Zn(2+) removal rate is not significantly affected and is comparable to the SLM control (96  ±  1%), while MFC power output is significantly increased.

[1]  Wenli Huang,et al.  Simultaneous reduction of vanadium (V) and chromium (VI) with enhanced energy recovery based on microbial fuel cell technology , 2012 .

[2]  C. Chao,et al.  Removal of mixed heavy metal ions in wastewater by zeolite 4A and residual products from recycled coal fly ash. , 2005, Journal of hazardous materials.

[3]  B. Alyüz,et al.  Kinetics and equilibrium studies for the removal of nickel and zinc from aqueous solutions by ion exchange resins. , 2009, Journal of hazardous materials.

[4]  Wei-Min Wu,et al.  Removal of heavy metals from fly ash leachate using combined bioelectrochemical systems and electrolysis. , 2014, Journal of hazardous materials.

[5]  Bruce E. Logan,et al.  Microbial Fuel Cells , 2006 .

[6]  Donald R. Fosnacht,et al.  The effects of certain impurities and their interactions on zinc electrowinning , 1983 .

[7]  M. McBride,et al.  Adsorption of copper and zinc by biochars produced from pyrolysis of hardwood and corn straw in aqueous solution. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[8]  L. J. Lozano,et al.  Recent advances in supported ionic liquid membrane technology , 2011 .

[9]  Bin Zhao,et al.  Arsenite removal from aqueous solution by a microbial fuel cell-zerovalent iron hybrid process. , 2013, Journal of hazardous materials.

[10]  O. Lefebvre,et al.  Bioelectrochemical treatment of acid mine drainage dominated with iron. , 2012, Journal of hazardous materials.

[11]  Li Zhuang,et al.  Enhanced performance of air-cathode two-chamber microbial fuel cells with high-pH anode and low-pH cathode. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[12]  K. Palanivelu,et al.  Studies on recovery of hexavalent chromium from plating wastewater by supported liquid membrane using tri-n-butyl phosphate as carrier , 2005 .

[13]  S. Rocha,et al.  Recovery of zinc sulphate from industrial effluents by liquid–liquid extraction using D2EHPA (di-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid) , 2007 .

[14]  K. Wasewar,et al.  Reactive extraction of lactic acid using alamine 336 in MIBK: equilibria and kinetics. , 2002, Journal of biotechnology.

[15]  H. Hurwitz,et al.  Investigation of electrical properties of bipolar membranes at steady state and with transient methods , 2001 .

[16]  Inmaculada Ortiz,et al.  Liquid membrane technology: fundamentals and review of its applications , 2010 .

[17]  M. dos Santos Afonso,et al.  Copper, zinc, cadmium and lead biosorption by Gymnogongrus torulosus. Thermodynamics and kinetics studies. , 2010, Colloids and surfaces. B, Biointerfaces.

[18]  B. Erable,et al.  Increased power from a two-chamber microbial fuel cell with a low-pH air-cathode compartment , 2009 .

[19]  Hong Liu,et al.  Efficacy of single-chamber microbial fuel cells for removal of cadmium and zinc with simultaneous electricity production. , 2014, Water research.

[20]  P. Tsakiridis,et al.  Hydrometallurgical process for zinc recovery from electric arc furnace dust (EAFD). Part II: Downstream processing and zinc recovery by electrowinning. , 2010, Journal of hazardous materials.

[21]  F. Harnisch,et al.  The suitability of monopolar and bipolar ion exchange membranes as separators for biological fuel cells. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[22]  Zhiqiang Hu,et al.  Bacterial response to a shock load of nanosilver in an activated sludge treatment system. , 2010, Water research.

[23]  Qian Yang,et al.  Recent advances in supported liquid membrane technology , 2007 .

[24]  Liping Huang,et al.  Copper catalysis for enhancement of cobalt leaching and acid utilization efficiency in microbial fuel cells. , 2013, Journal of hazardous materials.

[25]  Philippe Quevauviller,et al.  The Water Framework Directive , 2008 .

[26]  P. Seta,et al.  Efficient facilitated transport of lead, cadmium, zinc, and silver across a flat-sheet-supported liquid membrane mediated by lasalocid A , 2002 .

[27]  H. Bart,et al.  Microkinetics and reaction equilibria in the system ZnSO4/D2EHPA/isododecane , 1999 .

[28]  René A Rozendal,et al.  A bipolar membrane combined with ferric iron reduction as an efficient cathode system in microbial fuel cells. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.

[29]  R. Baker.  Membrane Technology and Applications , 1999 .

[30]  Hong Liu,et al.  Quantification of the internal resistance distribution of microbial fuel cells. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[31]  B. Lim,et al.  Removal of Hg2+ as an electron acceptor coupled with power generation using a microbial fuel cell. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[32]  Hubertus V M Hamelers,et al.  Microbial fuel cell operation with continuous biological ferrous iron oxidation of the catholyte. , 2007, Environmental science & technology.

[33]  Hong Liu,et al.  Electricity generation using an air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell in the presence and absence of a proton exchange membrane. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[34]  Gang Wang,et al.  Cathodic reduction of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] coupled with electricity generation in microbial fuel cells , 2008, Biotechnology Letters.

[35]  K. Schügerl,et al.  Application of large-scale hollow fiber membrane contactors for simultaneous extractive removal and stripping of penicillin G , 2002 .

[36]  Bruce E. Logan,et al.  Increased performance of single-chamber microbial fuel cells using an improved cathode structure , 2006 .

[37]  Fei Liu,et al.  Copper recovery combined with electricity production in a microbial fuel cell. , 2010, Environmental science & technology.

[38]  H. Hamelers,et al.  Effects of membrane cation transport on pH and microbial fuel cell performance. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.

[39]  Wei-Min Wu,et al.  Bioelectrochemical recovery of ammonia-copper(II) complexes from wastewater using a dual chamber microbial fuel cell. , 2012, Chemosphere.

[40]  H. Rismani-Yazdi,et al.  Cathodic limitations in microbial fuel cells: An overview , 2008 .

[41]  G. Stotzky,et al.  Toxicity of zinc to fungi, bacteria, and coliphages: influence of chloride ions , 1978, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[42]  Wei-Min Wu,et al.  Recovery of silver from silver(I)-containing solutions in bioelectrochemical reactors. , 2012, Bioresource technology.

[43]  Wei Yan,et al.  Electricity production from a bio-electrochemical cell for silver recovery in alkaline media , 2013 .