Conversion of Food Processing Waste to Bioenergy: Bangladesh Perspective

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an attractive renewable and sustainable technology to meet up the drastic energy crisis of the world through waste water treatment. This Bioelectrochemical system (BES) converts biomass spontaneously into electricity by the metabolic activity of microorganisms. Food processing industry generally discharges large volume of wastewater, which creates adverse financial and ecological impacts to the industry and environment. In this present contribution, electricity production from food processing industry wastewater that serves as substrates in MFCs was investigated. Dual chambered mediator-less MFC was designed and fabricated using locally available materials. Performance of the MFC was evaluated by measuring potential parameters, such as current generation, current density, change in pH, and change in chemical oxygen demand at different operating conditions. Polarization experiments were conducted to find the maximum power density. Current generation increased with increasing sludge loading, and maximum results were recorded as 90 µA with 9 g of sludge and optimum pH value 8 in the anode chamber. This study documented a maximum power density of 7.42 mW/m 2 with the corresponding current density of 25 mA/m 2 .