Resource recovery by osmotic bioelectrochemical systems towards sustainable wastewater treatment

Abstract

(academic)Recovering valuable resources from wastewater will transform wastewater management from a treatment focused to sustainability focused strategy, and creates the need for new technology development. An innovative treatment concept -osmotic bioelectrochemical system (OsBES), which is based on cooperation between bioelectrochemical systems (BES) and forward osmosis (FO), has been introduced and studied in the past few years. An OsBES can accomplish simultaneous treatment of wastewater and recovery of resources such as nutrient, energy, and water (NEW). The cooperation can be accomplished in either an integrated (osmotic microbial fuel cells, OsMFC) or coupled (microbial electrolysis cell-forward osmosis system, MEC-FO) configuration.In OsMFC, higher current generation than regular microbial fuel cell (MFC) was observed, resulting from the lower resistance of FO membrane. The electricity generation in OsMFC could greatly inhibit the reverse salt flux. Besides, ammonium removal was successfully demonstrated in OsMFC, making OsMFCs a promising technology for "NEW recovery" (NEW: nutrient, energy and water). For the coupled OsBES, an MEC-FO system was developed. The MEC produced an ammonium bicarbonate draw solute via recovering ammonia from synthetic organic solution, which was then applied in the FO for extracting water from the MEC anode effluent. The system has been advanced with treating landfill leachate. A mathematical model developed for ammonia removal/recovery in BES quantitatively confirmed that the NH4 + ions serve as effective proton shuttles across cation exchange membrane (CEM). Resource Recovery by Osmotic Bioelectrochemical Systems towards Sustainable Wastewater TreatmentMohan Qin Abstract (general audience)Nowadays, wastewater is no longer considered as waste. Instead, it is a pool for different kinds of resources, such as nutrient, energy, and water (NEW). Various technologies were developed to achieve NEW recovery from wastewater. A novel concept, osmotic bioelectrochemical system (OsBES) has been introduced and studied in the past few years. OsBES is based on two technologies: bioelectrochemical systems (BES) and forward osmosis (FO); and the corporation between these two technologies could accomplish simultaneous wastewater treatment and resource recovery. We investigated two kinds of OsBES: one is osmotic microbial fuel cells (OsMFC), and the other is microbial electrolysis cell-forward osmosis system (MEC-FO). For OsMFC, a mathematical model was built to understand the internal resistance, which will affect the current generation according to Om's law (I=U/R). The salt transport across the cation exchange membrane (CEM) is related to the current generation. The ion transport, especially ammonium/ammonia transport, across CEM membrane in BES was modelled, which will help the BES design and operation for ammonia recovery systems. The system performance for wastewater treatment and resource recovery in MEC-FO was fully investigated with both synthetic wastewater and landfill leach...

[Retracted] Construction of the Reverse Resource Recovery System of e‐Waste Based on DLRNN

“…In addition to the inflow of a large number of foreign electronic wastes, as far as China is concerned, once electronic and electrical products become wastes, there are often four main destinations: the holders of electronic wastes store them themselves and enter the second-hand market, the individual recyclers dismantle them after purchasing them, and the recycling plants recycle them [8]. In this case, it is necessary to analyze the emergence and development of reverse resources of e-waste from the perspective of economics, conduct in-depth research, and grasp on the nature of its emergence and development, so as to promote the development of reverse resources of e-waste in China and keep it consistent with the circular economy goal of building a harmonious society [9,10].…”

Closing the Nutrient Loop—The New Approaches to Recovering Biomass Minerals during the Biorefinery Processes

“…Osmotic bioelectrochemical systems (OsBES) are an emerging technology for the simultaneous recovery of nutrients, energy, and water ("NEW") that has been lately proposed and investigated by several groups-as reviewed in [358]. The systems combine BES with FO.…”

“…FO could increase nutrient recovery by concentrating the target compounds in wastewater [361] and assist with water recovery, while BES would improve FO by degrading the organic contaminants and providing a sustainable draw solute [362,363]. The number of studies related to nutrient recovery using OsBES systems is very limited [358,364,365], while others investigated nutrient removal, but not recovery [366,367]. The advantages of FO are its capacity of driving forces with high osmotic pressures that exceed the operating limits of RO, as well as its low fouling propensity and high rejection of contaminants from feed water [359].…”

Cathode-enhanced wastewater treatment in bioelectrochemical systems

“…45 This is further demonstrated in a BES with a conductive filtration cathode, in which the accumulated negative charges on the cathode created electrostatic repulsion to reduce foulants. 46 When forward osmosis (FO) membrane is integrated into BESs forming osmotic BESs, 47 a cathode hosts draw solution that generates an osmotic pressure and extracts water from the anode. FO-based BESs potentially have low fouling and low energy demand; however, regeneration of draw solute in an energy efficient way will be a key to the successful operation.…”