Bioelectrochemical conversion of waste to energy using microbial fuel cell technology

Khan, M. A.; Khan, Nishat; Sultana, Saima; Joshi, Rajkumar; Ahmed, Sirajuddin; Yu, Eileen Hao; Scott, Keith; Ahmad, Anees; Khan, Mohammad Zain

doi:10.1016/j.procbio.2017.04.001

Cited by 83 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 132 publications

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“…As the major limitation in converting cellulose to electricity is decomposition of this polysaccharide, attention needs to be focused on optimizing cellulose degradation and fermentation to the products that could be oxidized by exoelectrogens [66]. This will be the first step towards improving power generation, which will make it possible to scale-up cellulose-fed MFCs also by refining reactor materials and design [67,68]. Extremely important issue is the optimization of conditions for cellulolytic and electrogenic microorganisms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving Microbial Communities in Cellulose-Fed Microbial Fuel Cell

et al. 2018

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Abstract:The abundance of cellulosic wastes make them attractive source of energy for producing electricity in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). However, electricity production from cellulose requires obligate anaerobes that can degrade cellulose and transfer electrons to the electrode (exoelectrogens), and thus most previous MFC studies have been conducted using two-chamber systems to avoid oxygen contamination of the anode. Single-chamber, air-cathode MFCs typically produce higher power densities than aqueous catholyte MFCs and avoid energy input for the cathodic reaction. To better understand the bacterial communities that evolve in single-chamber air-cathode MFCs fed cellulose, we examined the changes in the bacterial consortium in an MFC fed cellulose over time. The most predominant bacteria shown to be capable electron generation was Firmicutes, with the fermenters decomposing cellulose Bacteroidetes. The main genera developed after extended operation of the cellulose-fed MFC were cellulolytic strains, fermenters and electrogens that included: Parabacteroides, Proteiniphilum, Catonella and Clostridium. These results demonstrate that different communities evolve in air-cathode MFCs fed cellulose than the previous two-chamber reactors.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving Microbial Communities in Cellulose-Fed Microbial Fuel Cell

et al. 2018

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“…Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are renewable energy technology transducers [4], which has the potential for application in wastewater treatment plants [5,6], electrical devices [7,8], and biosensor [9,10], because it can use bacteria for generating electricity from waste water. However, the power densities of MFCs are still low due to their high internal resistances [11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Wall Boundary Layer Thickness on Power Performance of a Recirculation Microbial Fuel Cell

2018

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Abstract:Hydrodynamic boundary layer is a significant phenomenon occurring in a flow through a bluff body, and this includes the flow motion and mass transfer. Thus, it could affect the biofilm formation and the mass transfer of substrates in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Therefore, understanding the role of hydrodynamic boundary layer thicknesses in MFCs is truly important. In this study, three hydrodynamic boundary layers of thickness 1.6, 4.1, and 5 cm were applied to the recirculation mode membrane-less MFC to investigate the electricity production performance. The results showed that the thin hydrodynamic boundary could enhance the voltage output of MFC due to the strong shear rate effect. Thus, a maximum voltage of 21 mV was obtained in the MFC with a hydrodynamic boundary layer thickness of 1.6 cm, and this voltage output obtained was 15 times higher than that of MFC with 5 cm hydrodynamic boundary layer thickness. Moreover, the charge transfer resistance of anode decreased with decreasing hydrodynamic boundary layer thickness. The charge transfer resistance of MFC with hydrodynamic boundary layer of thickness 1.6 cm was 39 Ω, which was 0.79 times lesser than that of MFC with 5 cm thickness. These observations would be useful for enhancing the performance of recirculation mode MFCs.

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“…Despite low numbers of published results, this approach found interest and some studies have been done revealing that different nature and concentrations of acids and bases pose different effects on chemical and physical properties of activated carbon. As it can be seen in a study conducted by Zhong Wang et al [46], they treated AC using four common acids; i.e., H 3 PO 4 , HCl, H 2 SO 4 and HNO 3 and found out that AC treated with 1M acids had increased ORR catalytic activity followed an order as AC-H 3 PO 4 > ACHCl> AC-H 2 SO 4 > AC-HNO 3 > AC where H 3 PO 4 showed an increase in performance of 115% with the maximum power density of 1546 ± 43 mWm -2 . The author stated that it was due to a decrease in resistance, enlarged total surface area and degree of graphitization of AC, however too much strong acidic functional group was found to be deleterious to MFC performance.…”

Section: Acid and Alkaline Treatmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Enhancing Catalyst Efficiency of Activated Carbon for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Air Cathode Microbial Fuel Cell Application

Muhoza¹,

Ma²,

Kalakodio³

et al. 2017

Int J Waste Resour

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IntroductionMicrobial fuel cell (MFC) is a potential environmental friendly bioelectrochemical system as it combines treatment of organic wastes and electric energy generation [1][2][3][4]. In MFCs, the electrochemically active microorganisms' biofilm colonizes the anodic surface thus oxidizing organic pollutants producing electrons and protons. Electrons are transferred through an external circuit to the cathode where are received by the terminal electron acceptor while protons migrate through the membrane or solution to the cathode to keep electrical neutrality which creates potential difference [1,5]. Several applications of this technology such as hydrogen gas production [6], hydrogen peroxide generation [7], desalination [8][9][10], remote sensors and monitoring devices [11,12] metal recovery at cathode [13] and robots [12,14] to mention but few, have been studied and left researchers with more innovation ideas in the field. Having electrochemical processes catalyzed by biological processes in addition to some other design parameters such as engineering of microbial biofilm structure, decrypting electron transfer mechanisms, cell/reactor configuration, electrode materials and geometries, substrate concentration, retention time, and optimizing cathode catalysts [15,16] makes this system more sensitive to internal losses and gives it a certain level of complexity [17,18]. This and other challenges that are still unanswered are the bottlenecks for MFC application in real environment [15,19]. Therefore, current researches focus on limiting factors and ways to curb their effects thus increasing the performance [2,20,21]. Among others, is trying different MFC design configurations where MFC aircathode proved to more advantageous over double chamber for scaling up because of its simple structure, low cost and direct use oxygen in air, which could removes aeration from conventional wastewater treatment process [5,22]. Due to its high reduction potential and inexhaustible source, Oxygen is the most fairly used terminal electron acceptor and is considered to be competent for MFC air-cathode application and scale up as it plays a critical role in both organic oxidation and energy recovery at the cathode [23]. AbstractMicrobial fuel cell (MFC) air cathode present a great potential among other configurations due to its simple design, low cost and direct use oxygen from air as terminal electron acceptor which could help to save tremendous energy used for aeration in conventional wastewater treatment. However, at the cathode oxygen reduction reaction which is vital to generate high power density is naturally slow, therefore a catalyst is needed to overcome its reaction over-potential. Platinum (Pt) is the standard used catalyst in large number of oxidation reduction reactions whether in basic or acidic electrolytes. But, due to its high cost and limited resources it doesn't make it a sustainable candidate for scaling up of this juvenile technology. Activated carbon was found to be a low cost and environmental friendly Ox...

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Bioelectrochemical conversion of waste to energy using microbial fuel cell technology

Cited by 83 publications

References 132 publications

Evolving Microbial Communities in Cellulose-Fed Microbial Fuel Cell

Evolving Microbial Communities in Cellulose-Fed Microbial Fuel Cell

Effect of Wall Boundary Layer Thickness on Power Performance of a Recirculation Microbial Fuel Cell

Enhancing Catalyst Efficiency of Activated Carbon for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Air Cathode Microbial Fuel Cell Application

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