Removal of copper from aqueous solution by electrodeposition in cathode chamber of microbial fuel cell

Bioelectrochemical recovery of Cu, Pb, Cd, and Zn from dilute solutions

“…Cu could be reduced by controlling the cell voltage at 0 V, which is equivalent to short-circuiting the cathode with the biological anode, and means that Cu could be recovered without an energy input. This is not surprising since Cu 2+ has a high reduction potential and has previously been used in the catholyte of MFCs [9][10][11]. Pb 2+ could not be recovered under short-circuit conditions.…”

“…Regarding metal recovery, copper (Cu 2+ ) [9][10][11] and hexavalent chromium (Cr 2 O 7 2-) [12,13] have been used as electron acceptors in the cathode of MFCs. Both Cu 2+ and Cr 2 O 7 2-have high reduction potentials (0.340 V and 0.365 V, respectively), which means that electrical energy production and metal recovery can be achieved simultaneously.…”

Enhanced decolorization of azo dye in a small pilot-scale anaerobic baffled reactor coupled with biocatalyzed electrolysis system (ABR–BES): A design suitable for scaling-up

“…In comparison, BESs can be applied to reduce oxidized forms of contaminants on the cathode to less toxic or more stable products. For example, a number of reduction reactions have been achieved using BESs for reducing nitrobenzene (Wang et al, 2011, antibiotics chloramphenicol (Liang et al, 2013), copper (II) (Tao et al, 2011), halogenated compounds (Lohner et al, 2011;Strycharz et al, 2010) and azo dyes (Mu et al, 2009;Cui et al, 2012Cui et al, , 2014. Recently, our research group developed a membrane-less, up-flow biocatalyzed electrolysis reactor (UBER) that successfully reduced azo dye up to 97.5 ± 1.0% (Cui et al, , 2014.…”

Copper Recovery from Polluted Soils Using Acidic Washing and Bioelectrochemical Systems

“…Of the theoretical Cu reduction based on charge transfer, 73%-116% could be accounted for by the removal of Cu 2+ ions in the catholyte. A value above 100% could mean that Cu2O was formed, which only requires one electron per Cu, or precipitation of non-reduced Cu as brochantite (CuSO4·3Cu(OH)2) [20]. A value below 100% could indicate that oxygen on the cathode was also reduced.…”

“…In BES, microorganisms oxidize the organic compounds present in e.g., wastewater and use the anode as an electron acceptor, thereby transforming the chemical energy in the organic compounds into electrical energy. Recent studies on diluted Cu solutions (~1 g/L) demonstrate that the energy consumption is significantly lower with BES compared to traditional electrolysis [19][20][21]. At certain cathode potentials, electrical energy could even be extracted from the system together with the Cu.…”