Hydrophobic membranes for ammonia recovery from digestates in microbial electrolysis cells: Assessment of different configurations

The combination of hydrophobic membranes and microbial electrolysis cells (MEC) was assessed in two different configurations in order to recover ammonia from anaerobically digested pig slurry. Politetrafluorethilene (PTFE) hydrophobic membranes were inserted both in an H-type three-chamber cell (MEC-H) and a two-chamber sandwich configuration MEC (MEC-S), both fitted with a cationic exchange membrane (CEM) dividing the anode and cathode compartments. The use of electrochemical techniques such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was applied to monitor the increase of the biofilm on the anode, related to the decrease of the charge transfer resistence.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (INIA project RTA2015-00079-C02-01). The support of the CERCA Program and of the Consolidated Research Group TERRA (ref. 2017 SGR 1290), both from the Generalitat de Catalunya, is also acknowledgedPostprint (updated version