Experimental investigation of a unique electro-biomembrane based integrated system for wastewater treatment and simultaneous clean water, hydrogen and energy production

Abstract

This paper concerns the design, development, and building of a unique electro-bio-membrane reactor for concurrent bioH2 production, desalination, and energy production by microorganisms in a single reactor. The effects of varying biomass amounts (5–50 g) and inoculum amounts (250–1500 mL) on the bioH2 production efficiency are also investigated. The lowest cumulative bioH2 yield of 24.2 mL/g is obtained using a biomass amount of 5 g, while it is 44.7 mL/g at a biomass amount of 50 g. The highest H2 production from water electrolysis is also found as 0.719 mL/min at improved conditions. Furthermore, the highest power and current density values are 2794.5 mW/m2 and 2786.1 mA/m2 at 1500 mL-inoculum, biomass amount of 30 g, initial pH of 5.5, and temperature of 37 °C in the dark fermentation (DF) cell. Moreover, the desalination efficiency increases from 41.6 to 65.8% with decreasing inoculum amounts from 1500 to 250 mL. © 2024 The Institution of Chemical Engineers