State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, TianGong University, Tianjin 300387, China; School of Material Science and Engineering, TianGong University, Tianjin 300387, China.
State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, TianGong University, Tianjin 300387, China; School of Environmental Science and Engineering, TianGong University, Tianjin 300387, China.
Water Res. 2022 Aug 15;222:118854. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118854. Epub 2022 Jul 11.
Ceramic membrane has become a major concern due to creasing cost and competitive efficiency. Microbial fuel cell-ceramic membrane bioreactor (MFC-CMBR) is considered alternative technology for larger-scale industrial application because of its advantages of convenient detecting and control of membrane fouling. However, MFC-CMBR are highly susceptible to membrane fouling and harsh operating requirements in these wastewaters of different compositions. This research critically discusses that electrochemical response in different types of MFC-CMBRs and control of electricity utilization on ceramic membrane fouling. The experimental results indicated that the application of sludge acclimated in coupling system with higher external resistance could ensure that lower costs (electricity utilization and membrane cleaning) provided enough membrane fouling control. The improved performance of MFC-CMBR-1 could be attributed to its enhanced nitrification/denitrification activity and capacity of electrons migration between electrode and sludge mixture. The coupling system alleviated membrane fouling and impedance increasing by improving the characteristics of sludge (increased particle size, decreased adsorption adhesion free energy), EPS (decreased hydrophobicity, molecular weight distribution regulation). And filtration tests showed that roughness and contact angle for the MFC-CMBR tend for better development compared to CMBR, dependent on the changes in the chemical surface groups as a result of electric distribution ratio. In addition, correlation analysis and filtration experiments showed that the extracellular polymer substances (EPS) enhanced the charge transfer resistance (R), and the protein substance in EPS was the main fouling substance when external resistance was close to the internal resistance of MFC. In summary, the low internal resistance of ceramic membrane lead to obvious better fouling control and electricity utilization than organic membrane, and the paper provides insight into the MFC-CMBR systems for a wide range of detecting membrane fouling and applications of membrane fouling mitigation.
陶瓷膜由于成本高和竞争力强而成为人们关注的焦点。微生物燃料电池-陶瓷膜生物反应器（MFC-CMBR）因其便于检测和控制膜污染的优点，被认为是大规模工业应用的替代技术。然而，MFC-CMBR 极易受到不同组成废水的膜污染和苛刻操作要求的影响。本研究批判性地讨论了不同类型的 MFC-CMBR 中的电化学响应以及对陶瓷膜污染的电力利用控制。实验结果表明，在具有较高外部电阻的耦合系统中驯化污泥的应用可以确保较低的成本（电力利用和膜清洗）提供足够的膜污染控制。MFC-CMBR-1 的性能得到改善，可归因于其增强的硝化/反硝化活性以及电极和污泥混合物之间电子迁移的能力。耦合系统通过改善污泥的特性（增加粒径、降低吸附自由能）和 EPS（降低疏水性、调节分子量分布）来缓解膜污染和阻抗增加。过滤测试表明，与 CMBR 相比，MFC-CMBR 的粗糙度和接触角更有利于发展，这取决于由于电分配比的变化而导致的化学表面基团的变化。此外，相关分析和过滤实验表明，细胞外聚合物物质（EPS）增强了电荷转移电阻（R），并且当外部电阻接近 MFC 的内阻时，EPS 中的蛋白质物质是主要的污染物质。总之，陶瓷膜的低内阻导致明显更好的污染控制和电力利用，比有机膜更优，本文为广泛的膜污染检测和膜污染缓解应用提供了对 MFC-CMBR 系统的深入了解。
