Project Summary

Sustainability in wastewater management requires energy and performance efficiencies. Energy recovery from waste is a major challenge at a time in which the Earth's resources are increasingly strained by human exploitation. The high concentration of dissolved or suspended organic matter present in most of the effluents offers a potential energy source. Development of a technology that uses this embedded energy as a resource, minimizes microbial growth and produces renewable energy, has an obvious potential to be a game changing technology for the sector.

In this aim, the recovery energy from wastewaters using microbial fuel cells (MFCs), where microorganisms oxidize wastewater constituents and convert their chemical energy into electricity with simultaneous wastewater purification, is a promising technology for replacing or integrating into existing energy-intensive wastewater treatment processes.

The present proposal, combine the results generated in our current research on microbial fuel cells and interdisciplinary expertise of the research team and is focused on the validation of one of the advanced carbon nanostructures as modifier for MFC anode and to validation of the functional model of MFC operating in fed-batch condition. Furthermore, based on our knowledge regarding the MFC design, the present proposal aims to develop also a functional model of MFCs operating in continuous mode condition and its performance in laboratory environment.

The development of planar/3D electrode configuration based on the anode modification with nitrogen-containing carbon nanostructures, understanding of how microbial populations and biofilm evolve, the improvement of reactor configuration designed to operate under long-time experiments and different operation conditions, batch or continuous flow open new ways for practical applications of MFC for bioenergy production and wastewater treatment.