Practical field application of a novel BOD monitoring system

Abstract

A biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) monitoring system, based on electrochemically-active bacteria in combination with a microbial fuel cell, has been developed for the purpose of on-site, on-line and real-time monitoring of practical wastewater. A microbial fuel cell that had been enriched with electrochemically-active bacteria was used as the basis of the measurement system. When synthetic wastewater was fed to the system, the current generation pattern and its Coulombic yield were found to be dependent on the BOD5 of the synthetic wastewater. A linear correlation between the Coulombic yields and the BOD5 of the synthetic wastewater were established. Real wastewater obtained from a sewage treatment plant also produced a highly linear correlation between the Coulombic yield and BOD5 in the system. To examine on-site, on-line and real-time monitoring capability, the BOD monitoring system was installed at a sewage treatment plant. Over 60 days, the measurement system was successfully operated with high accuracy and good stability with the measuring period for a sample being 45 min. This application showed that the application of the measurement system was a rapid and practical way for the determination of BOD5 in water industries.

A novel bioelectrochemical BOD sensor operating with voltage input

“…The water to be analyzed is fed to the anode chamber where a biofilm on the anode surface converts organics into an electric current. An aerated buffer solution is fed to the cathode chamber where oxygen is reduced to water on the cathode surface Kim et al, 2003aKim et al, , 2003bMoon et al, 2004). Kumlanghan et al (2007) used a similar MFC setup, but instead of enriching a bioelectrochemically active culture on the anode, a stable anaerobic microbial consortium was maintained in a separate reactor, which was fed to the MFC for each analysis.…”

Sustainable Bioenergy and Bioproducts

“…From day 2 onward, lactic acid concentrations decreased, with reductions of 14, 31, 54, and 71% with aeration of 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, and 1.0 vvm, respectively, by day 8. Fermentation of soybeans with R. oligosporus for tempeh production confirms that this fungal species is able to degrade lactic acid [83]. Fungal cultivation of settled thin-stillage supernatant improved lactic acid biodegradation, with 60% removal in 5 d with 0.8-vvm aeration (as compared to 54% with thin stillage particles).…”

Development and Long-Term Stability of a Novel Microbial Fuel Cell BOD Sensor with MnO2 Catalyst

“…Kim et al [18] reported that their MFC BOD sensor remained stable for five years, but provided little evidence to support their claim. In particular, re-calibration was not addressed.…”

“…MFC BOD sensors are quick and portable, and contain a mixed population of microorganisms (by using environmental inoculum from a wastewater reclamation plant in Singapore) able to oxidize a wide range of substrates [1,18]. Yet the design and operation conditions as reported in the literature are suboptimal, consisting of two-chambered MFC systems [13,14] functioning in batch mode [15,16,17].…”