Sustainable Power Production in a Membrane-less and Mediator-less Wastewater Microbial Fuel Cell

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) fed with wastewater are currently considered a feasible strategy for production of renewable electricity at low cost. A membrane-less MFC with biological cathode was built from a compact wastewater treatment reactor. When operated with an external resistance of 250 Ohm, the MFC produced a long-term power of approximately 70 mW/m2 for ten months. Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of the cathode biomass when the MFC was closed on a 2100 Ohm external resistance showed that the sequenced bands were affiliated with Firmicutes, -Proteobacteria, -Proteobacteria, -Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes groups. When the external resistance was varied between 250 and 2100 Ohm, sustainable resistance decreased from 900 to 750 Ohm, while sustainable power output decreased from 32 to 28 mW/m2. It is likely that these effects were caused by changes in the microbial ecology of anodic and cathodic biomass attached to the electrodes. Results suggest that cathodic biomass enrichment in “electroactive” bacteria may improve MFCs power output in a similar fashion to what has been already observed for anodic biomass

Biological phosphorus and nitrogen removal in a full scale sequencing batch reactor treating piggery wastewater

Research activities carried out at ENEA during the last few years allowed the development of a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) that is able to remove biologically organic waste, nitrogen and phosphorus and that was shown to be particularly suited to obtaining low effluent nutrient concentrations even starting from concentrated wastes. Research on optimisation of time cycles and on process modelling, allowed an advanced comprehension of reactor behaviour and the development of a process able to obtain more than 98% removal of nitrogen, phosphorus and COD, and therefore almost capable of matching effluent standards with a sole biological process. On the basis of laboratory results and process modelling, a full scale SBR plant has been designed and realised. This plant, in ten months of operation, is achieving even better results compared to the laboratory ones

Innovative water saving systems in households in Europe

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7 Rome / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal