SIMULTANEOUS WASTEWATER TREATMENT AND BIOLOGICAL ELECTRICITY GENERATION

Several advances are discussed about generate electricity using bacteria while accomplishing wastewater treatment in processes based on microbial fuel cell technologies. A calculation is made on the potential for electricity recovery. Assuming a town of 100,000 people generates 16.4 £ 106L of wastewater, a wastewater treatment plant has the potential to become a 2.3MW power plant if all the energy is recovered as electricity. The generation of electricity during wastewater treatment may profoundly affect the approach to anaerobic treatment technologies used in wastewater treatment.