Ricerc@Sapienza

Here a three-chamber microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) has been developed to couple the CO 2 removal from a gas mixture to the ammonium nitrogen recovery. The here proposed MEC adopted an innovative two-side cathode configuration, where two identic cathodic chambers are connected in parallel by a titanium wire and separated from an intermediate anodic compartment by an anion and a cation exchange membrane (AEM and CEM).

Here, an innovative three-chamber bioelectrochemical system configuration is proposed to combine COD, CO2 and NH4+ removal into a single device. In the proposed process, while COD oxidation and CO2 reduction occurred, respectively, in the anodic and cathodic chamber, the consequent current generation promoted the migration of target ionic species towards an intermediate accumulation chamber, across cation and anion exchange membranes, respectively.