Influence of Cr (VI) concentration on Cr (VI) reduction and electricity production in microbial fuel cell

Microbial fuel cell is an efficient technology to reduce pollutants of the heavy metal ions. Herein, a dual-chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) coupled with abio-cathode and electrochemically active bacteria is fabricated to treat Cr (VI) containing wastewater and harvest bioelectricity simultaneously. To investigate the wide application of MFC for various industries, four different concentrations of Cr (VI) (6 mg/L, 15 mg/L, 40 mg/L, 100 mg/L) are used to explore the removal efficiency of Cr (VI) and the corresponding power performance. We find that the power performance gradually increases with the increment of the initial Cr (VI) concentration. Significantly, a maximum power density of 35.3 mW/m² can be achieved with the initial concentration of 100mg/L Cr (VI), while MFC only generate negligible power density (2.6 mW/m²) without the presence of Cr (VI). Meanwhile, MFC combined with the initial Cr (VI) concentration of 15 mg/L shows the highest Cr (VI) removal of 66.5%. Moreover, partial precipitates are found on the cathode surface and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis has demonstrated that the Cr (VI) is successfully reduced into Cr (III). This study offers an alternative technology to remove Cr (VI) and synchronous electricity generation.