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Updated: Mar 21, 2026

Electrochemically and Bioelectrochemically Induced Ammonium Recovery
Published on: January 22, 2015
Assessing potential cathodes for resource recovery through wastewater treatment and salinity removal using
G N Nikhil1, Dileep Kumar Yeruva1, S Venkata Mohan1
1Bioengineering and Environmental Sciences (BEES), CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT), Hyderabad 500 007, India.
Abstract:
The present study evaluates relative functioning of microbial electrochemical systems (MES) for simultaneous wastewater treatment, desalination and resource recovery. Two MES were designed having abiotic cathode (MES-A) and algal biocathode (MES-B) which were investigated with synthetic feed and saline water as proxy of typical real-field wastewater. Comparative anodic and cathodic efficiencies revealed a distinct disparity in both the MES when operated in open circuit (OC) and closed circuit (CC). The maximum open circuit voltage (OCV) read in MES-A and MES-B was about 700mV and 600mV, respectively. Salinity and organic carbon removal efficiencies were noticed high during CC operation as 72% and 55% in MES-A and 60% and 63% in MES-B. These discrete observations evidenced ascribe to the influence of microbial electrochemical induced ion-migration over cathodic reduction reactions (CRR).
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