The objective of this thesis was to assess the feasibility of the microbial fuel cell technology for the production of electrical energy coupled with the treatment of pulp and paper effluents. The first part of work showed that various pulp and paper effluents are suitable to form efficient anodic biofilms. When the effluent was supplemented with acetate and the anode polarized between at -0.3 V/SCE, current densities of 12 A/m² and Coulombic efficiencies up to 90% were obtained. When effluents were provided as the sole substrate, current densities reached 6 A/m² and Coulombic efficiencies 30%, with COD removal around 50%. The optimal anodic biofilms were associated with associated with abiotic air cathodes to design complete microbial fuel cells. Power densities from 294 mW/m² to 596 mW/m² were obtained with two different effluents.
Microbial Fuel Cell for electricity production and water treatment of paper industry