Use of microbial fuel cells for the treatment of residue effluents discharged from an anaerobic digester treating food wastes

One of practical challenges in the anaerobic-digestion (AD) technology would be cost-effective treatment of residue effluents containing high concentrations of organics, nitrogen and phosphorus (CNP). In order to evaluate the utility of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for treating anaerobic-digester effluents (ADEs) and generating power from them, laboratory-scale single-chamber MFCs were filled with ADE obtained from a commercial AD plant treating food wastes and thereafter operated by routinely supplying ADE at different hydraulic residence times (HRTs, 5 to 20 days).