i-CREW-International Collaboration for Optimisation of Resource Recovery from Wastewater

为了实现可持续的循环经济，需要优先考虑有用资源的回收和再循环。金属污染的工业废物流引起了极大的健康和生态问题，但它们也是回收有用资源（如金属）的宝贵来源。传统的金属回收技术涉及高能耗和化学密集型。生物电化学系统，如微生物燃料电池（MFC）已成为一个新的可持续的技术平台，从工业废水中去除和回收金属离子。微生物燃料电池联合收割机结合了阳极微生物生物膜对有机废水的处理和阴极金属离子的还原。到目前为止，回收几种金属离子，如钴，铬，铜，金，银，硒，钒，锌等，已经被证明了。虽然有前途，金属回收利用MFC是一个复杂的过程，并取决于大量的操作和设计参数，如pH值，氧化还原电位的金属离子，电极材料的类型，金属离子的初始浓度在废水中，等，以优化工艺和最大限度地利用MFC的金属回收，需要更多的研究，以了解不同的决定因素影响的过程中的作用。在这个国际合作项目中，我们联合收割机结合了位于英国和印度的两个世界领先的研究小组的优势，开发了一个强大的预测优化工具，可用于确定设计和操作条件，以最大限度地从废水中回收金属。萨里大学的研究人员Siddharth Gadkari博士和Jhuma Sadhukhan博士将根据S Venkata Mohan博士实验室的实验数据开发用于过程优化的综合数学模型。

To achieve a sustainable circular economy, recovery and recycling of useful resources needs to be prioritized. Metal contaminated industrial waste streams post great health and ecological concerns, but they are also a valuable source for recovery of useful resources like metals. Traditional metal recovery technologies involve high energy consumption and are chemically intensive. Bioelectrochemical systems such as microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have emerged as a new sustainable technology platform for removal and recovery of metal ions from industrial wastewaters. MFCs combine treatment of organic wastewater by microbial biofilms at the anode with the reduction of metal ions from metal-laden waste streams at cathode. So far, recovery of several metal ions like Cobalt, Chromium, Copper, Gold, Silver, Selenium, Vanadium, Zinc, etc., has been demonstrated. Though promising, metal recovery using MFCs is a complex process and depends on large number of operational and design parameters such as, pH, redox potential of the metal ion, type of electrode materials, initial concentration of metal ions in the wastewater, etc. To optimize the process and maximize metal recovery using MFCs, more research is needed to understand the role of different determinant factors influencing the process. In this international collaborative project, we combine the strengths of two world leading research groups based in UK and India, to develop a robust predictive optimisation tool that can be used to determine the design and operating conditions to maximize the recovery of metals from wastewaters. University of Surrey researchers, Dr. Siddharth Gadkari and Dr. Jhuma Sadhukhan, would develop the comprehensive mathematical models for process optimisation based on the experimental data from the laboratory of Dr. S Venkata Mohan.