Title: The effect of olive oil mill and molasses wastewater as a co-substrate during simultaneous textile wastewater treatment and energy generation

Authors: Vildan Akgul; Kevser Cirik; Ahmet Duyar; Emre Oğuz Koroglu

Addresses: Department of Bioengineering and Sciences, Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, Kahramanmaras 46100, Turkey ' Department of Environmental Engineering, Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, Kahramanmaras 46100, Turkey ' Department of Environmental Engineering, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta 32260, Turkey ' Department of Environmental Engineering, Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, Kahramanmaras 46100, Turkey

Abstract: The biological treatment of recalcitrant wastewaters in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) rather than chemical, physical, and advanced oxidation processes are low cost and environmentally friendly processes. In this study, sulphate-reducing micro-organisms in MFC anodic chamber were fed with olive oil mill (OMW) and molasses wastewater at various dilution rates for simultaneous wastewater treatment and energy production. A power density of 31 ± 5 W/m² was achieved at a 1:65 dilution rate (v: v) for molasses wastewater in the presence of sulphate-reducing bacteria. In these conditions, the highest voltage was 990 mV with influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 1.200 mg/l. The total COD, sulphate, and colour removal efficiencies were 53.2%, 52.7%, and 41.1%, respectively. The overarching goal of this study was to develop a better understanding of the removal of emerging pollutants in textile, olive mill, and molasses wastewater using microbial fuel cells.

Keywords: molasses treatment; olive mill wastewater treatment; microbial fuel cell; bioelectric.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2021.112486

International Journal of Global Warming, 2021 Vol.23 No.1, pp.30 - 42

Received: 17 Oct 2019
Accepted: 17 Jun 2020
Published online: 19 Jan 2021 *

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