Nitrogen removal from wastewater through microbial electrolysis cells and cation exchange membrane

Vulnerability of water resources to nutrients led to progressively stricter standards for wastewater effluents.modification of the conventional procedures to meet the new standards is inevitable. new technologies shouldgive a priority to nitrogen removal. in this paper, ammonium chloride and urine as nitrogen sources were used toinvestigate the capacity of a microbial electrolysis cell (mec) configured by cation exchange membrane (cem) forelectrochemical removal of nitrogen over open-and closed-circuit potentials (ocp and ccp) during biodegradationof organic matter. results obtained from this study indicated that cem was permeable to both organic andammonium nitrogen over ocp. power substantially mediated ammonium migration from anodic wastewater to thecathode, as well. with a urine rich wastewater in the anode, the maximum rate of ammonium intake into thecathode varied from 34.2 to 40.6 mg/l.h over ccp compared to 10.5-14.9 mg/l.h over ocp. ammonium separationover ccp was directly related to current. for 1.46-2.12 mmol electron produced, 20.5-29.7 mg-n ammonium wasremoved. current also increased cathodic ph up to 12, a desirable ph for changing ammonium ion to ammoniagas. results emphasized the potential for mec in control of ammonium through ammonium separation andammonia volatilization provided that membrane characteristic is considered in their development.