Bioelectrochemical treatment of municipal solid waste landfill mature leachate and dairy wastewater as co-substrates

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 28; no. 19; pp. 24639 - 24649
• Main Authors: Bolognesi, Silvia, Cecconet, Daniele, Callegari, Arianna, Capodaglio, Andrea G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.05.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Biochemical fuel cells; Contaminants; Dairy industry wastewaters; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Electrode materials; Electrodes; Energy recovery; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Fuel technology; Landfill; Landfills; Leachates; Legislation; Microorganisms; Municipal landfills; Municipal solid waste; Municipal waste management; Pollutant removal; Solid waste management; Solid wastes; Substrates; Waste and Biomass Management & Valorization; Waste disposal; Waste disposal sites; Waste Water Technology; Wastewater; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Electrode materials; Agrofood industry wastewater; Bioelectrochemical systems; Leachate treatment; Bioelectricity
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-10167-7

Despite solid wastes’ landfill disposal limitation due to recent European legislation, landfill leachate disposal remains a significant problem and will be for many years in the future, since its production may persist for years after a site’s closure. Among process technologies proposed for its treatment, microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can be effective, achieving both contaminant removal and simultaneous energy recovery. Start-up and operation of two dual-chamber MFCs with different electrodes’ structure, fed with mature municipal solid waste landfill leachate, are reported in this study. Influent (a mix of dairy wastewater and mature landfill leachate at varying proportions) was fed to the anodic chambers of the units, under different conditions. The maximum COD removal efficiency achieved was 84.9% at low leachate/dairy mix, and 66.3% with 7.6% coulombic efficiency (CE) at a leachate/dairy ratio of 20%. Operational issues and effects of cells’ architecture and electrode materials on systems’ performance are analyzed and discussed.