Aerobic granular sludge stabilization in biocathode chamber of newly constructed continue flow microbial fuel cell system treating synthetic and pharmaceutical wastewater

Abstract

Relative stable aerobic granular sludge (AGS) formed in a newly constructed continue flow microbial fuel cell (cf-MFC) system. AGS bulking caused by filamentous over-growth was observed in treating simulated wastewater with COD concentration of around 1,000 mg/L after more than 50 d. Addition of pharmaceutical wastewater in the influent of the cf-MFC at COD concentration of around 1,500 mg/L alleviated AGS bulking obviously, with average COD removal efficiency of 82.2%. However, AGS self-collapse happened after influent COD concentration of the pharmaceutical wastewater increased to around 2,500 mg/L, corresponding COD removal efficiency decreased to 58.2% dramatically. High simultaneous nitrification and denitrification performance was obtained in the cf-MFC, which was affected by the addition of pharmaceutical wastewater. Moreover, appearance variations of the AGS under different operation conditions were shown.

Keywords:

• Aerobic granular sludge
• Continue flow microbial fuel cell
• Stabilization
• Filamentous over-growth
• Self-collapse

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51308362) and Foundation of Key Laboratory of Special Waste Water Treatment，Sichuan Province Higher Education System (SWWT2014-1).