Cultivation of aerobic granular sludge in a microbial fuel cell

Abstract

Aerobic granular sludge(AGS) is a special biofilm formed by the self-aggregation of sludge material. In this study, AGS was cultivated in the biocathode of a continuous flow microbial fuel cell (MFC). During the formation of AGS, changes in sludge concentration, extracellular polymers (EPS), pollutants removal and power generation were examined. The results showed that, MLVSS kept above 5 g/L, the PS, PN and PN/PS of TB-EPS showed a gradually increasing trend, the removal efficiency of COD and ammonia nitrogen was 94.46% and 93.03%, respectively. A maximum voltage output of 350 mV was achieved.