TY - JOUR
T1 - Wastewater treatment, energy recovery and desalination using a forward osmosis membrane in an air-cathode microbial osmotic fuel cell
AU - Werner, Craig M.
AU - Logan, Bruce E.
AU - Saikaly, Pascal
AU - Amy, Gary L.
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-I1-003-13
Acknowledgements: This work was sponsored by a PhD fellowship, a Global Research Partnership-Collaborative Fellow award, and award KUS-I1-003-13 from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Special thanks to Victor Yangali-Quintanilla, Zhen-Yu Li and Rodrigo Valladares-Linares for their helpful comments and suggestions and Cyril Aubry for SEM assistance.
PY - 2013/2
Y1 - 2013/2
N2 - A microbial osmotic fuel cell (MOFC) has a forward osmosis (FO) membrane situated between the electrodes that enable desalinated water recovery along with power generation. Previous designs have required aerating the cathode chamber water, offsetting the benefits of power generation by power consumption for aeration. An air-cathode MOFC design was developed here to improve energy recovery, and the performance of this new design was compared to conventional microbial fuel cells containing a cation (CEM) or anion exchange membrane (AEM). Internal resistance of the MOFC was reduced with the FO membrane compared to the ion exchange membranes, resulting in a higher maximum power production (43W/m3) than that obtained with an AEM (40W/m3) or CEM (23W/m3). Acetate (carbon source) removal reached 90% in the MOFC; however, a small amount of acetate crossed the membrane to the catholyte. The initial water flux declined by 28% from cycle 1 to cycle 3 of operation but stabilized at 4.1L/m2/h over the final three batch cycles. This decline in water flux was due to membrane fouling. Overall desalination of the draw (synthetic seawater) solution was 35%. These results substantially improve the prospects for simultaneous wastewater treatment and seawater desalination in the same reactor. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.
AB - A microbial osmotic fuel cell (MOFC) has a forward osmosis (FO) membrane situated between the electrodes that enable desalinated water recovery along with power generation. Previous designs have required aerating the cathode chamber water, offsetting the benefits of power generation by power consumption for aeration. An air-cathode MOFC design was developed here to improve energy recovery, and the performance of this new design was compared to conventional microbial fuel cells containing a cation (CEM) or anion exchange membrane (AEM). Internal resistance of the MOFC was reduced with the FO membrane compared to the ion exchange membranes, resulting in a higher maximum power production (43W/m3) than that obtained with an AEM (40W/m3) or CEM (23W/m3). Acetate (carbon source) removal reached 90% in the MOFC; however, a small amount of acetate crossed the membrane to the catholyte. The initial water flux declined by 28% from cycle 1 to cycle 3 of operation but stabilized at 4.1L/m2/h over the final three batch cycles. This decline in water flux was due to membrane fouling. Overall desalination of the draw (synthetic seawater) solution was 35%. These results substantially improve the prospects for simultaneous wastewater treatment and seawater desalination in the same reactor. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/562623
UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0376738812007752
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84870933273&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2012.10.031
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2012.10.031
M3 - Article
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 428
SP - 116
EP - 122
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
ER -