Performance of a pilot-scale microbial electrolysis cell coupled with biofilm-based reactor for household wastewater treatment: simultaneous pollutant removal and hydrogen production.

The septic tank is the most commonly used decentralized wastewater treatment systems for household wastewater treatment in on-site applications. The removal rate of various pollutants is lower in different septic tank configurations. The integration of a microbial electrolysis cells (MEC) into septic tank or biofilm-based reactors can be a green and sustainable technology for household wastewater treatment and energy production. In this study, a 50-L septic tank was converted into a 50-L MEC coupled with biofilm-based reactor for simultaneous household wastewater treatment and hydrogen production. The biofilm-based reactor was integrated by an anaerobic packed-bed biofilm reactor (APBBR) and an aerobic moving bed biofilm reactor (aeMBBR). The MEC/APBBR/aeMBBR was evaluated at different organic loading rates (OLRs) by applying voltage of 0.7 and 1.0 V. Result showed that the increase of OLRs from 0.2 to 0.44 kg COD/m d did not affect organic matter removals. Nutrient and solids removal decreased with increasing OLR up to 0.44 kg COD/m d. Global removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total nitrogen (TN), ammoniacal nitrogen (NH), total phosphorus (TP) and total suspended solids (TSS) removal ranged from 81 to 84%, 84 to 85%, 53 to 68%, 88 to 98%, 11 to 30% and 76 to 88% respectively, was obtained in this study. The current density generated in the MEC from 0 to 0.41 A/m contributed to an increase in hydrogen production and pollutants removal. The maximum volumetric hydrogen production rate obtained in the MEC was 0.007 L/Ld (0.072 L/d). The integration of the MEC into biofilm-based reactors applying a voltage of 1.0 V generated different bioelectrochemical nitrogen and phosphorus transformations within the MEC, allowing a simultaneous denitrification-nitrification process with phosphorus removal.