Application of Microbial Fuel Cells for Treatment of Paper and Pulp Industry Wastewater: Opportunities and Challenges

Paper and pulp industries play vital role in socio-economic development of India. These units are present in both small scale and large scale providing employment to millions. Paper production process is water-intensive and also produces huge amount of wastewater. Due to the toxicity of pollutants and quantity of waste produced Central Pollution Control Board classifies them into red category industries. Wastewater from these units primarily consists of organic compounds from raw material processing and inorganic compounds used in production process. These units currently employ a combination of physicochemical and biological treatment methods to attain the prescribed discharge limits. These methods are energy-intensive and costly and produce secondary pollutants. Added to these a worldwide call for sustainable waste treatment technology emphasizes on energy efficiency. Anaerobic treatment for biogas production is the only available technology to harvest energy from wastewater. Though anaerobic treatment is capable of being energy positive, its lower treatment efficiency requires tertiary treatment. Hence a novel treatment technology capable of energy generation and better treatment efficiency is the future of wastewater treatment plants. Microbial fuel cells are wastewater treatment technology capable of simultaneous energy recovery. The energy recovered is in the form of electricity which is an added advantage. Though MFC confers various advantages over other treatment process, it is still experimented in laboratory scale. Extensive research is required to scale up this system to practical scale. Previous studies on MFC treating paper industry wastewater could attain higher COD removal than anaerobic treatment. In an another study the redox compounds present in paper industry wastewater mediated electrons to anode resulting in high power production. An elaborate and extensive research with MFC treating paper and pulp industry wastewater would open up strategies, feasibility and challenges in scaling up these processes. In this chapter we will be focusing on (1) various paper making processes, (2) waste generated from these units, (3) current treatment process, (4) drawbacks of these processes, (5) feasibility of using MFC for treatment of paper and pulp industry wastewater, (6) current status of MFC for paper industry wastewater treatment and (7) the possibility of integrating MFC into existing wastewater treatment plants.