Impact of nutrients and catholyte buffer on bioelectricity generation in microbial fuel cell treating municipal wastewater

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan

2 Department of Chemistry, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan

3 School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan

4 Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, GC University Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an emerging, eco-friendly, and cost-effective technique that uses organic substrate as a source of chemical energy for conversion into bioelectricity. However, challenges such as lower power production and inefficient degradation of wastes are required to be overcome for commercialization of MFC technology. This study investigated the impact of nutrient addition and catholyte buffer on the performance of MFCs using carbon felt (CF) and nickel foam (NF) as anodes, with and without polyaniline (PANI) modification. A dual chamber MFC was used with domestic wastewater strength of ~1000 mgL-1 (COD). The addition of nutrients and catholyte buffer (500mM) resulted in an increase in power density and COD removal when compared to the control MFC without nutrients addition and with catholyte buffer (100mM). Further, modification of the CF and NF anode with polyaniline leads to an increase in power generation and COD removal. The highest power density (522.7 ± 24 mW m-2) and COD removal (87%) was observed using PANI@NF as anode in MFC using nutrients for microbial growth and 500 mM catholyte buffer. The current study is likely to have a favorable impact on the development of a sustainable and environmentally friendly method of producing bioenergy.

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Iranian Journal of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 11 September 2023

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