Removal of Copper (Cu) and Cadmium (Cd) at low concentrations is attracting more attention due to the cumulative toxicity and difficulty in the removal process. In this study, a novel microbial metals enrichment and recovery cell (MMERC) is proposed for efficient and cost-effective recovery of Cu(II) and Cd(II) at low concentrations. The superiority of the proposed system is that the metal ions are in-situ separated from wastewater and enriched in the cathodic chamber driven by self-generated electricity, as well as recovered simultaneously taking advantage of the produced caustic. In the operation, Cu(II) and Cd(II) in the contaminated wastewater decrease from initial concentrations of 5 mg L⁻¹ to less than 0.2 mg L⁻¹, and these separated metals are highly enriched in the catholyte and removed simultaneously with 99.0% for Cu(II) and 96.5% for Cd(II). The system shows great separation and enrichment performance with increased metals concentrations to 20 mg L⁻¹. A 20-cycle operation demonstrates long-term stability, as the removals remained above 95%, and the deposited hydroxides have no significant effects on the cathode. The energy balance analysis further demonstrates the great promise of the MMERC system in energy-efficient treatment of metal contaminated wastewater.

由于累积毒性和去除过程中的困难，低浓度铜（Cu）和镉（Cd）的去除引起了更多关注。在这项研究中，提出了一种新型的微生物金属富集和回收池（MMERC），用于在低浓度下高效，经济地回收Cu（II）和Cd（II）。所提出系统的优势在于，金属离子与废水原位分离，并在由自发电驱动的阴极室中富集，并利用产生的苛性碱同时回收。在操作中，被污染废水中的Cu（II）和Cd（II）从初始浓度5 mg L ^-1降低到小于0.2 mg L ^-1，这些分离的金属在阴极电解液中高度富集，同时被去除，其中Cu（II）为99.0％，Cd（II）为96.5％。随着金属浓度增加至20 mg L ^-1，该系统显示出出色的分离和富集性能。20次循环操作显示出长期稳定性，因为去除率保持在95％以上，并且沉积的氢氧化物对阴极没有显着影响。能量平衡分析进一步证明了MMERC系统在高能效处理金属污染废水方面的巨大前景。