Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 3, 2025

Supercritical Nitrogen Processing for the Purification of Reactive Porous Materials
Published on: May 15, 2015
Nitrogen oxide gas purification using carbon in water as reducing reagent with the aid of microbial fuel cell
Xinxin Shi1, Fan Zhao1, Chi Cao1
1School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China; Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Environmental Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China; Key Laboratory of Northwest Water Resource, Environment and Ecology, MOE, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055, China.
Abstract:
Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) can degrade the organic matter (OM) in wastewater at the anode and transfer electrons to the cathode. In this work, the harmful NOX gas was used as electron acceptor in MFC and converted to harmless N2. The OM in water was indirectly used as a zero-cost reducing agent for NOx removal. More than 80% of NOX was removed continuously by MFC at room temperature. The NOX was directly reduced to N2 at MFC cathode and the cathode activity played a key role on enhancing the NOX removal. The NOX removal efficiency by the cathode of high potential was 1.37 times that by the cathode of low potential. When O2 coexisting with NO as the electron acceptor, not only the NOX removal but also the power output of MFC was improved greatly. The presence of NOX did not decrease the power generation of MFC under the same O2 concentration. The MFCs showed good stability for NOX treatment and power output. Moreover, the possible pathways and advantages of NOX removal by MFC were discussed in detail. These results indicated that the MFC system has the potential to treat wastewater, purify flue gas and recover energy simultaneously.
More Related Videos
10:44Preparation of Biomass-based Mesoporous Carbon with Higher Nitrogen-/Oxygen-chelating Adsorption for CuII Through Microwave Pre-Pyrolysis
Published on: February 12, 2019
07:34Author Spotlight: Scaling Microalgal Biotechnology for Enhanced Biomethane Production
Published on: March 22, 2024
Related Concept Videos
Environmental Applications of Microorganisms
Bioremediation
Metabolism of Chemolithotrophs
Overview of Nitrogen Metabolism
The largest pool of nitrogen available in the terrestrial ecosystem is gaseous nitrogen (N2) from the air, but this...
Preparation of Amines: Reduction of Oximes and Nitro Compounds
Though catalytic hydrogenation can reduce nitrobenzenes, the reduction is nonselective in the presence of other functional groups. For instance, if nitrobenzene contains an aldehyde group,...
Inorganic Nitrogen Assimilation