Catalytic and filterable polyester-filter membrane electrode with a high performance carbon foam-Fe-Co catalyst improved electricity generation and waste-water treatment in MBR-MFC

Using the flat module membrane electrodes based on polyester filter modified with polyaniline (PANI)-phytic acid (PA), a new type of membrane bio-reactor (MBR) system is developed for both bio-electrochemical electricity generation and effluent filtration. A specifically prepared carbon foam-Fe-Co catalyst was coated on the conductive, filterable cathode membrane which makes it catalytic for enhancing cathodic oxygen reduction reaction and electricity generation. The cell voltage (with carbon foam-Fe-Co, 0.5-0.4 V) is superior to control test 1 (without any catalyst, 0.2 V), moreover, it is even better than control test 2 (with Pt-C catalyst, 0.5-0.3 V). The corresponding maximum power density of carbon foam-Fe-Co is 38.5 and 2.4 times higher than control test 1 and 2, respectively. More importantly, the base electrode materials and catalyst were both low-cost. The overall removal efficiency of COD and NH4+-N are satisfactory, at 95% +/- 2.5% and 85% +/- 2.5%, respectively. This integrated system is easy to scale up for practical application in waste-water treatment and offers a better option in operating and coupling MBR with bio-electricity generation.