| Summary: | Abstract In wastewater treatment, biological nitrogen removal is an important topic, and the optimal condition for it is a mesophilic environment. This study developed a thermophilic microbial fuel cells (thermo-MFCs) equipped with a hydrophobic membrane electrode to remove and recover ammonia and water from leachate. The results were compared with those of the mesophilic MFCs (meso-MFCs) and they show that the current and power densities for meso-MFCs are higher. The ammonia removal efficiencies of thermo-MFCs are 83% (closed circuit) and 60% (open circuit), higher than those of closed- and open-circuit meso-MFCs (48 and 38%, respectively). Water vapor, the main recovery water flux for the thermo-MFCs, provided 36.5 L m− 2 d− 1 using the closed-circuit mode without applied energy. Moreover, thermo-MFCs and meso-MFCs can be restored within 24 h even under inhibition by using 7200 mg L− 1 ammonia. The proposed process presents an economic and ecofriendly method to not only recover water and ammonia from leachate but also alleviate ammonia inhibition.
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