Events Calendar

CEE Seminar

Speaker: Dr. Zhen (Jason) He, Department of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Talk Title: Novel Bioelectrochemical Systems for Water and Wastewater Treatment

Abstract: As an emerging concept, bioelectrochemical systems (BES) have gained significant attention because of their integrated wastewater treatment and bioenergy recovery. The representatives of BES include microbial fuel cells (MFCs), microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) and microbial desalination cells (MDCs). BES takes advantage of microbial metabolism and electrochemical reactions to oxidize organic compounds and generate electrons that can be extracted as electric energy. This energy can be used either to offset the energy consumption by wastewater treatment, or to drive desalination through integrating drinking water treatment with wastewater treatment. The potential for BES to disrupt current water/wastewater treatment processes is significant—the treatment plants in the U.S. currently consume a large amount of electricity, whose production requires coal and other heavy-polluting fossil fuels. As a result, the negative effects of energy production on the environment combined with ever-increasing demands for clean water and energy are depleting nature’s resources and ultimately affecting human health. BES offer great promise for treating wastewater and/or desalinating saline water in a more energy-efficient way, and can potentially function as an alternative to today’s treatment processes. However, the current state of BES for practical application is far from ready—they still possess challenges that limit their application in treating wastewater/water and producing bioenergy, which require intensive and strategic exploration. This presentation will introduce and discuss two potential applications of BES, bioelectrochemical wastewater treatment and bioelectrochemical desalination, and the key issues/challenges of their research and development. The section “bioelectrochemical wastewater treatment” will focus on MFC configuration, system scaling up, electrochemical limitation, microbial community on electrodes, and electrode modification using carbon nanomaterials. Bioelectrochemical desalination will introduce MDC development. Analysis of energy production, transfer and use in MDCs suggests that MDCs should be operated under a high-current condition. To reduce salinity through dilution by extracting useful water from wastewater, forward osmosis is integrated into MFCs to form osmotic MFCs (OsMFCs). We have hydraulically coupled OsMFCs with MDCs and achieved improved treatment of both wastewater and seawater.



Host: Astani CEE Dept.

Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Evangeline Reyes