Development of energy self-sufficient domestic wastewater treatment technology for Pacific atolls

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14056
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Civil and environmental engineering
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University
• Principal Investigator: Fujita Masafumi 茨城大学, 工学部, 准教授 (60362084)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 微生物燃料電池 / 下廃水 / 海水 / 酸素透過膜 / 有機物・窒素除去

Outline of Final Research Achievements

An air-cathode MFCs treating municipal wastewater containing seawater showed 80% or more of organic matter removal within 48h. Polarization curves showed that the internal resistance was reduced 20 times and maximum power density was improved to be 1,000 times under the presence of seawater. The municipal wastewater containing seawater inhibited organic matter uptake by suspended bacteria in the anode chamber. In contrast, hydrolysis and fermentation processes were not affected. To achieve simultaneous removals of organic matter and nitrogen without using any external energy, double-camber MFC in which a gas permeable membrane was introduced into cathode camber was operated with fed of synthetic coke-oven wastewater. Without any external energy, nitrification occurred, which was equal to one-third of nitrification rate in aeration. The double-chamber MFC generated the highest power density of 62mW/m2.

Free Research Field

水環境工学