The Application of Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells in Aquacultural Sediment Remediation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this paper, SMFC systems with different electrode materials (carbon fiber brush, graphite felt, and carbon fiber cloth) and structural forms were constructed, and the advantages and disadvantages of various electrodes were compared in terms of electricity generation performance, pollutant removal rate, and application cost. I think that this paper did not meet the requirements for publication.

(1) Lines 69-87, this paragraph listed the major factors that influenced the performance of SMFCs, in this paper, authors researched the two factors: electrode material and electrode condifuration, what were the selected reasons?

(2) Line 108, construction and operation of the SMFC

The whole design of the experiment is confusing.

Are there duplicate groups for each experimental condition?

Figure 1-3 suggested to be put in one image.

(3) Only part of the polarization curve and power density curves were showed in Figure 5 and Figure 6.

(4) Overlying water remediation and sediment pollutant removal were measured olny under the SMFC-C100 and SMFC-C1000 treatments, what were the reasons?

(5) The sentences in this article were very difficult to understand and there were many grammatical mistakes: such as Lines 55-59; 60-62; 84-87; 100-104…

Author Response

Please refer to the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a well-presented paper summarizing the electrical generation properties, as well as pollutant removal properties, of different sediment microbial fuel cell (SMFC) designs: carbon fiber brush, graphite felt, and carbon fiber cloth electrodes.

This is a well-written paper that was a pleasure to read, the results of which will be of interest to the SMFC community.  The introduction/background section gives an easy to read overview of how SMFCs accomplish nutrient removal.  The experimental design is appropriate and easy to follow.  The figures are clear and well-labeled.  The conclusions are supported by the experimental results.  The results detailing the effectiveness of different configurations of SMFCs will be useful to inform future designs for both electricity generation and pollutant remediation.

Very minor comments, not required to be fixed (left at discretion of authors):

(1) Lines 185-187 you might edit to make clear the voltages are in the same order as the reactor types listed in Table 1.

(2) Figure 4 it's a little bit hard to see the rapid increase in the purple line, so you might swap which anodes are shown by purple and green colors.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

No other comments.