Renewable Electricity and Hydrogen Production via Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems

Abstract

Urban wastewater could be converted into energy if microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) like microbial dual-chamber electrolysis cells (MDEC) or microbial fuel cells (MFC) are applied as a treatment method. Mathematical modelling of MFC and MDEC for wastewater treatment and energy recovery has been developed in this study. The Radaue method has been used to solve ordinary differential equations (ODEs), and the model outputs were successfully validated with previous experimental and modelling data. A case study in Montreal, Canada, has also been considered for testing the application of METs on an urban scale with a total daily wastewater flow of 75,000 litres/day. The results show that from 1 m3 of wastewater, MDEC and MFC can generate 0.077 kg H2 and 0.033 kWh, respectively.