RESEARCH ARTICLE Simultaneous energy generation and UV quencher removal from landfill leachate using a microbial fuel cell Syeed Md Iskander 1 & John T. Novak 1 & Brian Brazil 2 & Zhen He 1 Received: 11 July 2017 /Accepted: 13 September 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017 Abstract The presence of UV quenching compounds in land- fill leachate can negatively affect UV disinfection in a waste- water treatment plant when leachate is co-treated. Herein, a microbial fuel cell (MFC) was investigated to remove UV quenchers from a landfill leachate with simultaneous bioelec- tricity generation. The key operating parameters including hy- draulic retention time (HRT), anolyte recirculation rate, and external resistance were systematically studied to maximize energy recovery and UV absorbance reduction. It was found that nearly 50% UV absorbance was reduced under a condi- tion of HRT 40 days, continuous anolyte recirculation, and 10 Ω external resistance. Further analysis showed a total re- duction of organics by 75.3%, including the reduction of hu- mic acids, fulvic acids, and hydrophilic fraction concentration as TOC. The MFC consumed 0.056 kWh m −3 by its pump system for recirculation and oxygen supply. A reduced HRT of 20 days with periodical anode recirculation (1 hour in every 24 hours) and 39 Ω external resistance (equal to the internal resistance of the MFC) resulted in the highest net energy of 0.123 kWh m −3 . Granular activated carbon (GAC) was used as an effective post-treatment step and could achieve 89.1% UV absorbance reduction with 40 g L −1 . The combined MFC and GAC treatment could reduce 92.9% of the UVabsorbance and remove 89.7% of the UV quenchers. The results of this study would encourage further exploration of using MFCs as an energy-efficient method for removing UV quenchers from landfill leachate. Keywords Landfill leachate . UVabsorbance . UV quenchers . Energy production . Microbial fuel cell Introduction Landfill leachate is a complex wastewater that is produced from the degradation of decomposable waste within landfills and water precipitation (Ghosh et al. 2015). Among myriad contaminants, leachate contains a substantial amount of or- ganics, which can be divided into humic acids, fulvic acids, and hydrophilic fraction (Renou et al. 2008). Both humic and fulvic acids can constitute 70–80% of the mature leachate’s organics (Christensen et al. 1998; Zhang et al. 2009). In a young leachate, the hydrophilic fraction can be the dominating organic fraction (Christensen et al. 1998). These hydrophobic (humic and fulvic acids) and hydrophilic organics are called ultraviolet (UV) quenchers and can hinder UV application in wastewater treatment plants by negatively affecting disinfec- tion (Dahlen et al. 1996; Gupta et al. 2014; Imai et al. 2002). Due to their recalcitrance to conventional biological treatment, there has been a considerable amount of research on UV quenchers of landfill leachate and there is an urgent need to find an effective way to reduce the concentrations of UV quenchers in landfill leachate before its discharge to conven- tional municipal wastewater treatment plants. Most of the studies for removing UV quenchers from landfill leachate involved advanced oxidation. For exam- ple, Fenton oxidation is effective in removing UV Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0231-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Zhen He zhenhe@vt.edu 1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA 2 Waste Management, Gaithersburg, MD 20882, USA Environ Sci Pollut Res DOI 10.1007/s11356-017-0231-8