Generation of bioelectricity from effluent treatment

Abstract

Urbanization and industrialization have resulted in generation of large volumes of wastewater with high organic load In conventional activated sludge treatment process about 70 of energy is utilized for aeration Treatment and disposal of excess sludge biomass accounts up to 60 of the total operating cost Hence a sustainable cost effective wastewater treatment needs to be developed to convert the organic load into useful energy The energy associated with wastewater is categorized into two forms as chemical and thermal The chemical energy contributes 26 2 4 kWh m3 in the form of carbon source I e COD and nutrient compounds N and P The remaining 74 72 kWh m3 contributes to thermal energy which can be utilized only by means of external heat pump However the chemical energy can be utilized in different ways and the fuel cells are one among them Since large quantities of effluent are treated the chemical energy content in effluent organics is 26 it can be converted into useful energy by incorporation of Microbial Fuel Cell MFC The power generated from MFC is a green Energy In this research identical vertical configured MFC reactors were fabricated to simulate real effluent treatment plant newline