Integrating wastewater treatment with electricity generation through the synergy between forward osmosis and microbial fuel cell technology | |
| Author | Sahawat Yumnthama |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-20-11 |
| Subject(s) | Water--Purification--Membrane filtration Microbial fuel cells |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Osmotic microbial fuel cell (OsMFC) integrates forward osmosis (FO) process into a microbial fuel cell (MFC) to improve electricity generation and wastewater purification performance. In this study, the electricity generation was assessed using the maximum power density. It was observed that OsMFC (135.5 62.5 mW/m2) generated higher maximum power density than conventional MFC (105.9 39.2 mW/m2) using cation exchange membrane (CEM). Meanwhile, internal resistance in OsMFC (86.4 34.3 ) was found lower than that in MFC (137.8 61.3 ). Membrane fouling was observed in OsMFC which reduced the water flux and electricity generation. after the 91.75% water recovery was obtained when fouled FO membrane was cleaned using 0.2% NaClO. The effect of external resistance on current production was further studied. Reducing external resistance was able to enhance the organic removal and coulombic efficiency (CE). An optimized maximum power density was obtained when external resistance was similar to internal resistance. Furthermore, the effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) was studied. It was found that maximum power density increased when HRT was shortened. With HRT increased from 3 h to 6 h, organic removal was improved from 67.58 ± 5.99 % to 86.00 ± 4.60 %, whereas CE was reduced from 6.58 ± 0.58 % to 3.21 ± 0.56 %. Meanwhile, water flux was slightly improved from 1.52 ± 0.11 to 1.64 ± 0.09 L/m2/h when HRT was decreased from 6 h to 3 h. Proton transportation was increased due to increased ion diffusion flux in shorter HRT. |
| Year | 2020 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering and Management (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Xue, Wenchao |
| Examination Committee(s) | Chongrak Polprasert;Thammarat Koottatep |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Royal Thai Government Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2020 |