Denitrification and electrogenesis performances of bio-cathode microbial fuel cell with carbon paper separator

In order to investigate the performances of bio-cathode microbial fuel cell (MFC) with low-cost separator, dual-chamber MFC was designed to decrease the cost by using denitrifying bacteria as cathode catalyst and carbon paper coated polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) instead of proton exchange membrane (PEM). The results showed that the optimal concentration of NO₃^--N in bio-cathode chamber was 99.22 mg/L, when the maximum voltage output of bio-cathode MFC (with PEM) could reach 0.11 V, and the removal efficiency of NO₃^--N and COD could be 80% and 62.8%, respectively. In addition, equal voltage output of 0.22 V (external resistance 500 Ω) was obtained from bio-cathode MFC with and without PEM during the operation, while the electricity generation of the latter one was more steady. In this research, the feasibility of bio-cathode MFC with low-cost separator was confirmed, and the foundation of using this technology to remove nitrogen from wastewater was also laid.