Nitrogen-containing wastewater fuel cells for total nitrogen removal and energy recovery based on Cl•/ClO• oxidation of ammonia nitrogen

The excess nitrogen discharge into water bodies has resulted in extensive water pollution and human health risks, which has become a critical global issue. Moreover, nitrogenous wastewater contains considerable chemical energy contributed by organic pollutants and nitrogenous compounds. Therefore, the treatment of various kinds of nitrogen-containing wastewater for nitrogen removal and energy recovery is of significance. Biological methode and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are the main methods for nitrogen removal. However, biological treatment is easily inhibited by high-salinity, high ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N/NH4+-N), nitrite and toxic organics in wastewater, which limits its application. AOPs mainly induce in situ generation of highly reactive species, such as hydroxyl radical (HO•), sulfate radical (SO4•−) and chlorine radicals (Cl•, ClO•, Cl2•−), for nitrogen removal. Nevertheless, HO• shows low reactivity and N2 selectivity towards NH3-N/NH4+-N oxidation, and SO4•− also demonstrates unsatisfactory NH3-N/NH4+-N removal. It has been shown that Cl•/ClO• can efficiently remove NH3-N/NH4+-N with high N2 selectivity. The generation of Cl•/ClO• can be triggered by various techniques, among which the PEC technique shows great potential due to its higher efficiency for Cl•/ClO• generation and eco-friendly approach for pollutants degradation and energy recovery by utilizing solar energy. Cl•/ClO• oxidation of NH3-N/NH4+-N and nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) reduction can be strengthened through the design of photoanode and cathode materials, respectively. Coupling with this two pathways, an exhaustive total nitrogen (TN) removal system is designed for complete TN removal. When introducing the mechanism into photocatalytic fuel cells (PFCs), the concept of nitrogen-containing wastewater fuel cells (NFCs) is proposed to treat several typical types of nitrogen-containing wastewater, achieving high-efficiency TN removal, organics degradation, toxic chlorate control, and energy recovery simultaneously. Recent research progress in this field is reviewed, summarized and discussed, and in-depth perspectives are proposed, providing new ideas for the resource treatment of nitrogen-containing wastewater.