Abbas Ahmed Abdul, Ismail Zainab Ziad
Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2025 Jun;32(26):15790-15810. doi: 10.1007/s11356-025-36632-9. Epub 2025 Jun 16.
Several studies have evaluated the performance of constructed wetland coupled microbial fuel cell (CW-MFC) operated in a batch mode. However, so far, few studies have concerned the performance and behavior of the continually operated CW-MFC systems. This study explores the performance of a continually operated CW-MFC for 180 days to treat real leather tannery wastewater (LTWW) simultaneously with bioelectricity generation. Steady-state conditions were achieved within 10 days, indicating the potential of the suggested CW-MFC system to run and stabilize shortly. The results revealed that maximum removal efficiencies of organic matters (COD), TDS, and the toxic pollutants including chromium and arsenic were 98.7%, 66.7%, 100%, and 100%, respectively. Maximum generated power was 1614.5 mW/m. Three microbial growth models including Monod, Blackman, and Halden were adopted to describe the bacterial growth in terms of power output during the exponential growth period. The predicted results were asymmetric and the degree of their closeness to the experimental results was different with determination coefficient (R) values of 0.97, 0.93, and 0.27, respectively, indicating the superiority of Monod model for describing the biofilm development and growth. Electrochemical model was also, adopted to predict the performance of MFC as the principal component of the CW-MFC system. The results predicted by the electrochemical model were in an excellent agreement with experimental results with determination coefficients (R) values of 0.90 and 0.97 for polarization and power density curves, respectively, confirming the reliability of the suggested model for the proposed approach using CW-MFC system within the applied range of operating conditions. The results of the study demonstrated that CW-MFC is a potential option for the treatment of the harmful tannery wastewater associated with power generation.
多项研究评估了以批次模式运行的人工湿地耦合微生物燃料电池（CW-MFC）的性能。然而，到目前为止，很少有研究关注连续运行的CW-MFC系统的性能和行为。本研究探索了连续运行180天的CW-MFC处理实际制革厂废水（LTWW）并同时产生生物电的性能。在10天内达到了稳态条件，表明所建议的CW-MFC系统具有短期内运行并稳定的潜力。结果显示，有机物（COD）、总溶解固体（TDS）以及包括铬和砷在内的有毒污染物的最大去除效率分别为98.7%、66.7%、100%和100%。最大发电功率为1614.5 mW/m²。采用了包括莫诺德（Monod）、布莱克曼（Blackman）和哈尔登（Halden）在内的三种微生物生长模型来描述指数生长期内细菌生长与功率输出的关系。预测结果不对称，它们与实验结果的接近程度不同，决定系数（R）值分别为0.97、0.93和0.27，表明莫诺德模型在描述生物膜发育和生长方面具有优越性。还采用了电化学模型来预测作为CW-MFC系统主要组成部分的MFC的性能。电化学模型预测的结果与实验结果非常吻合，极化曲线和功率密度曲线的决定系数（R）值分别为0.90和0.97，证实了所建议的模型在所应用的运行条件范围内用于所提出的使用CW-MFC系统方法的可靠性。研究结果表明，CW-MFC是处理与发电相关的有害制革厂废水的一种潜在选择。
