MFC una nova manera de fer les coses

De vegades, tot recordant el passat un s'adona que el mes simple es el que funciona. Dins del tractament de les aigües residuals, ja es possible fer realitat dues coses a l'hora: depurar una aigua residual (eliminació de contaminats de l'aigua) i potabilitzar-la per al seu consum humà (eliminació de nitrats) sense barrejar-les!. Tot a un cost energètic baix (amb producció de electricitat!), una alta eficiència i amb pocs residus generats.

Abstract del paper acceptat per a publicació a la revista Bioresource Technology (2011):

Autotrophic nitrite removal in the cathode of microbial fuel cells

Sebastià Puig^1,*, Marc Serra¹, Ariadna Vilar-Sanz², Marina Cabré¹, Lluís Bañeras², Jesús Colprim¹ and M. Dolors Balaguer¹

Abstract Nitrification to nitrite (nitritation process) followed by a reduction to dinitrogen gas decreases the energy demand and the carbon requirements. This paper aims to study the autotrophic nitrite removal in the cathode of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Special interest was given in determining if nitrite is used as the electron acceptor by exoelectrogenic bacteria (biologic reaction) or by graphite electrodes (abiotic reaction). The results demonstrated that after a nitrate pulse at the cathode nitrite was initially accumulated. Then, nitrite was removed. Nitrite and nitrate can be indistinctly used as the electron acceptor by exoelectrogenic bacteria for nitrogen reduction from wastewater while producing bioelectricity. However, if oxygen is present in the cathode chamber, nitrite is oxidised via biological or electrochemical processes.. The identification of a dominant bacterial member similar to Oligotropha carboxidovorans confirms that autotrophic denitrification is the main metabolism mechanism in the cathode of the MFC.