Recovery of nitrogen and water from landfill leachate by a microbial electrolysis cell-forward osmosis system

Mohan Qin, Hannah Molitor, Brian Brazil, John T. Novak, Zhen He

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

123 Scopus citations

Abstract

A microbial electrolysis cell (MEC)-forward osmosis (FO) system was previously reported for recovering ammonium and water from synthetic solutions, and here it has been advanced with treating landfill leachate. In the MEC, 65.7±9.1% of ammonium could be recovered in the presence of cathode aeration. Without aeration, the MEC could remove 54.1±10.9% of ammonium from the leachate, but little ammonia was recovered. With 2M NH4HCO3 as the draw solution, the FO process achieved 51% water recovery from the MEC anode effluent in 3.5-h operation, higher than that from the raw leachate. The recovered ammonia was used as a draw solute in the FO for successful water recovery from the treated leachate. Despite the challenges with treating returning solution from the FO, this MEC-FO system has demonstrated the potential for resource recovery from wastes, and provide a new solution for sustainable leachate management.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)485-492
Number of pages8
JournalBioresource Technology
Volume200
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2016

Keywords

  • Ammonium bicarbonate
  • Ammonium recovery
  • Forward osmosis
  • Landfill leachate
  • Microbial electrolysis cells

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Recovery of nitrogen and water from landfill leachate by a microbial electrolysis cell-forward osmosis system'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this