Optimization of temperature and supporting electrolyte for ammonium removal using bioelectrochemical systems

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Environmental Health, School of Medicine, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Environmental Health, School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

4 Assistant Professor, School of Public Health and Institute of Public Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

High concentrations of ammonium in drinking water can cause many diseases and environmental problems such as eutrophication. Therefore, high-performance and eco-friendly methods for purification are of great importance and must be considered. Recently, bioelectrochemical systems have been successfully applied for the removal of many pollutants from water and wastewater. In the present work, ammonium was treated using the bioelectrochemical process. The 2 effective factors of temperature and supporting electrolyte dose were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). The optimal conditions were electrolyte dosage of 250 mg/l and temperature of 26.5 °C. Under optimized conditions, the maximum ammonia removal percentage was 99.6%. Analysis of variance indicated a reasonable correlation coefficient (R2) between the predicted and actual values. R2 (0.8913), adjusted R2 (0.8137), and coefficient of variation (8.32 %) were calculated based on statistical analysis. The results indicate that the bioelectrochemical process is the most useful and effective method for the removal of ammonium from wastewater.   

Keywords

References

  1. Lai CL, Chen SH, Liou RM. Removing aqueous ammonia by membrane contactor process. Desalination and Water Treatment 2013; 51(25-27): 5307-10.
  2. Foley B, Jones ID, Maberly SC, Rippey B. Long-term changes in oxygen depletion in a small temperate lake: effects of climate change and eutrophication. Freshwater Biology 2012; 57(2): 278-89.
  3. Budzianowski WM. Mitigating NH3 Vaporization from an Aqueous Ammonia Process for CO2 Capture. Information: International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering 2011; 9(1).
  4. Haule AT, Pratap HB, Katima HJ, Mugittu K, Mbwette TS. Potential Macrophytes for Nitrogen Removal from Domestic Wastewater in Horizontal Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetlands in Tanzania. The Open Environmental Engineering Journal 2013; 6: 14-21.
  5. Sarioglu M. Removal of ammonium from municipal wastewater using natural Turkish (Dogantepe) zeolite. Separation and Purification Technology 2005; 41(1): 1-11.
  6. Nguyen VK, Hong S, Park Y, Jo K, Lee T. Autotrophic denitrification performance and bacterial community at biocathodes of bioelectrochemical systems with either abiotic or biotic anodes. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering 2015; 119(2): 180-7.
  7. Clauwaert P, Desloover J, Shea C, Nerenberg R, Boon N, Verstraete W. Enhanced nitrogen removal in bio-electrochemical systems by pH control. Biotechnol Lett 2009; 31(10): 1537-43.
  8. Sayess RR, Saikaly PE, El-Fadel M, Li D, Semerjian L. Reactor performance in terms of COD and nitrogen removal and bacterial community structure of a three-stage rotating bioelectrochemical contactor. Water Res 2013; 47(2): 881-94.
  9. Feleke Z, Sakakibara Y. A bio-electrochemical reactor coupled with adsorber for the removal of nitrate and inhibitory pesticide. Water Res 2002; 36(12): 3092-102.
  10. Mousavi SA, Ibrahim Sh. Application of response surface methodology (RSM) for analyzing and modeling of nitrification process using sequencing batch reactors. Desalination and Water Treatment 2015; 1-10.
  11. Rezaee A, Safari M, Hossini H. Bioelectrochemical denitrification using carbon felt/multiwall carbon nanotube. Environ Technol 2015; 36(8): 1057-62.
  12. Varia J, Silva Martinez S, Velasquez Orta SB, Bull S, Roy S. Bioelectrochemical metal remediation and recovery of Au3+, Co2+ and Fe3+ metal ions. Electrochimica Acta 2013; 95: 125-31.
  13. Jia YH, Tran HT, Kim DH, Oh SJ, Park DH, Zhang RH, et al. Simultaneous organics removal and bio-electrochemical denitrification in microbial fuel cells. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 2008; 31(4): 315-21.
  14. Rozendal RA, Hamelers HV, Rabaey K, Keller J, Buisman CJ. Towards practical implementation of bioelectrochemical wastewater treatment. Trends Biotechnol 2008; 26(8): 450-9.
  15. Xie S, Liang P, Chen Y, Xia X, Huang X. Simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal using an oxic/anoxic-biocathode microbial fuel cells coupled system. Bioresour Technol 2011; 102(1): 348-54.
  16. Yan H, Saito T, Regan JM. Nitrogen removal in a single-chamber microbial fuel cell with nitrifying biofilm enriched at the air cathode. Water Res 2012; 46(7): 2215-24.
  17. Jim?nez-Contreras E, Torres-Salinas D, Bail?n Moreno R, Ba?os RR, L?pez-C?zar ED. Response Surface Methodology and its application in evaluating scientific activity. Scientometrics 2008; 79(1): 201-18.
  18. Wilson KB. On the Experimental Attainment of Optimum Conditions. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B (Methodological) 1951; 13(1): 1-45.
  19. Zhang S, Wang Y, He W, Wu M, Xing M, Yang J, et al. Impacts of temperature and nitrifying community on nitrification kinetics in a moving-bed biofilm reactor treating polluted raw water. Chemical Engineering Journal 2014; 236: 242-50.
  20. Zhao Y, Zhang B, Feng C, Huang F, Zhang P, Zhang Z, et al. Behavior of autotrophic denitrification and heterotrophic denitrification in an intensified biofilm-electrode reactor for nitrate-contaminated drinking water treatment. Bioresour Technol 2012; 107: 159-65.
  21. Lu H, Oehmen A, Virdis B, Keller J, Yuan Z. Obtaining highly enriched cultures of Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphates through alternating carbon sources. Water Res 2006; 40(20): 3838-48.
  22. Muhamad MH, Sheikh Abdullah SR, Mohamad AB, Abdul RR, Hasan Kadhum AA. Application of response surface methodology (RSM) for optimisation of COD, NH3-N and 2,4-DCP removal from recycled paper wastewater in a pilot-scale granular activated carbon sequencing batch biofilm reactor (GAC-SBBR). J Environ Manage 2013; 121: 179-90.
  23. Xiao L, Young EB, Berges JA, He Z. Integrated photo-bioelectrochemical system for contaminants removal and bioenergy production. Environ Sci Technol 2012; 46(20): 11459-66.
  24. Dincer AR, Kargi F. Salt inhibition of nitrification and denitrification in saline wastewater. Environ Technol 1999; 20: 1147-53.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics