Preparation of conductive microfiltration membrane and its performance in a coupled configuration of membrane bioreactor with microbial fuel cell

Abstract

A conductive flat microfiltration membrane (G-FM) was prepared with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) on stainless steel mesh base by the method of immersion-precipitation phase transformation. The pure water flux and mean pore size of the prepared G-FM were 712 ± 62 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹ and 0.09 ± 0.01 μm, respectively. Equipped with the prepared G-FM, the coupled configurations of membrane bioreactor (MBR) with microbial fuel cell (MFC) removed 96.6% ± 3.9% COD, 95.8% ± 5.7% NH₃–N and 94.7% ± 5.2% total nitrogen and generated 349 ± 19 mW m⁻² bioelectricity from the synthetic municipal wastewater. Moreover, the membrane fouling was reduced due to enhanced hydrophilicity and electrostatic repulsive forces. The coupled configuration with the G-FM presents a bright future in the field of wastewater treatment and greatly promotes the practical application of MBR and MFC.