Treatment of domestic sewage with anoxic/oxic membrane-less microbial fuel cell with intermittent aeration

An anoxic/oxic microbial fuel cell (MFC) reactor was applied to treat domestic sewage with intermittent aeration at cathodic chamber. The MFC yielded maximum power density of 2.05 W/m3 at current density 6.05 A/m3, 91.7 ± 0.3% chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 98.2 ± 0.3% ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) removals could be reached with most of the hydrophilic (HPI), hydrophobic acid (HPO-A), transphilic acid (TPI-A) of the former being consumed with minimal residual aromatics and the most of NH3-N being converted to N2. When the circuit was opened, the COD removal was dropped to 81.1 ± 0.6% and NH3-N to 80.4 ± 0.9% with most of the HPI, TPI-A and hydrophobic neutral (HPO-N) fractions of the former being consumed with excess aromatic residue and 60% of the latter being converted to NO2−-N or NO3−-N in effluent. Bioelectrochemical reactions in the tested MFC enhance COD and NH3-N removals from domestic sewage.