Surfactant addition to enhance bioavailability of bilge water in single chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs)

Jae-Hoon Hwang; Kyoung-Yeol Kim; Eleazer P Resurreccion; Woo Hyoung Lee

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.02.007

Surfactant addition to enhance bioavailability of bilge water in single chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs)

J Hazard Mater. 2019 Apr 15:368:732-738. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.02.007. Epub 2019 Feb 4.

Authors

Jae-Hoon Hwang¹, Kyoung-Yeol Kim², Eleazer P Resurreccion³, Woo Hyoung Lee⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, 32816, United States.
² Department of Environmental and Sustainable Engineering, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York 12222, United States.
³ Department of Civil Engineering Technology, Montana State University Northern, Havre, Montana, 59501, United States.
⁴ Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, 32816, United States. Electronic address: woohyoung.lee@ucf.edu.

PMID: 30739026
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.02.007

Abstract

Effective remediation of bilge water, a shipboard oily liquid waste, is important for both commercial and military vessels due to the domestic and international regulations. In this study, bilge water was used as a substrate for exoelectrogenic bacteria and biodegradation of bilge water and concurrent electricity generation were investigated using Pseudomonas putida ATCC 49128 in single chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs). To enhance bioavailability of the bilge water, two types of surfactants were added (100 ppm) into the oily wastewater containing 0.1% standard bilge mix (SBM) and their impacts on electricity production were evaluated under various conditions. Anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS) addition increased soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) by forming micelle, producing maximum power density of 225.3 ± 3.2 mW m^-2. However, the MFC with nonionic surfactant (Triton X-100) produced only 2.3 ± 0.1 mW m^-2 due to no enhancement on biodegradable SCOD. A high NaCl concentration (100-500 mM) adversely affected power production due to decrease in available SCOD caused by emulsion coalescence. This is a first study to use surfactants to enhance bioavailability of non-biodegradable oily wastewater in a single chamber MFC.

Keywords: Bilge water; Microbial fuel cells (MFCs); NaCl; Pseudomonas putida; Surfactant.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Bioelectric Energy Sources*
Biological Availability
Octoxynol / chemistry*
Pseudomonas putida / metabolism*
Ships
Sodium Chloride / pharmacology
Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate / chemistry*
Surface-Active Agents / chemistry*
Wastewater

Substances

Surface-Active Agents
Waste Water
Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate
Sodium Chloride
Octoxynol