Acclimation performance of constructed wetland coupled with microbial fuel cell for ammonia treatment of wastewaters at high loading rate

Abstract

Global challenges on water and energy crisis have pressurized on water treatment industry to put into practice advanced technologies for ensuring a suitable supply of either water or energy services. Compared with other biological treatment technologies, constructed wetland (CW) is widely considered as an efficient eco-technology for wastewater treatment with the advantages of low cost, simple operation and maintenance. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology is the recently emerging approach in environmental engineering. The integration of MFCs within vertical up-flow CW systems (VSF-CW) as a sustainable technology, therefore, could provide dual benefits in nitrogen removal of wastewaters and energy recovery simultaneously. This study has preliminarily evaluated the acclimation performance of VSF-CW-MFC systems at the high loading rate (4.2 mg COD/h.L; COD:N = 10:1) of domestic wastewaters containing ammonia. Results demonstrated the potential of VSF-CW-MFC systems in achieving electricity generation and ammonia removal of domestic wastewaters at the high loading rate. The plant presence and influent pH of 7.0 could improve the performance efficiency. Average removal efficiencies of NH4⁺ and COD in planted microcosms with the influent pH of 7.0 were 43.4% and 79%, respectively.