2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Development of the energy efficient wastewater treatment technology by stacked microbial fuel cells

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24651088
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Environmental technology/Environmental materials
Research Institution	National Institute for Environmental Studies
Principal Investigator	SYUTSUBO KAZUAKI 独立行政法人国立環境研究所, 地域環境研究センター, 室長 (80293257)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	排水処理 / 水環境保全 / 省エネルギー / 創エネルギー
Research Abstract	For the establishment of both efficient organic wastewater treatment technology and recovery of electric energy, the stacked microbial fuel cells (StMFCs) by series connection of two MFCs were developed. Continuous flow experiment feeding with sugar containing wastewater (0.5 gCOD/L) was conducted to evaluate process performance of the StMFCs. Both organic concentration and composition in each anode tank was stabilized by serial connection of MFCs, StMFCs achieved good COD removal (79%) and sufficient electric generation (0.55 W/m3- each MFC) at HRT (Hydraulic retention time) of 13 hours. Also, proliferation of electricity-generating bacteria, such as genus Geobactor and genus Rhodobacter, are confirmed in each anode chamber. The increase in observed voltage value for the entire system in the series connection of the electric circuit, the increase of the observed current value for the entire system was observed in a parallel connection.