Enhanced power generation in annular single‐chamber microbial fuel cell via optimization of electrode spacing using chocolate industry wastewater

Abstract

Development and practical application of microbial fuel cell (MFC) is restricted because of the limitations such as low power output. To overcome low power limitation, the optimization of specific parameters including electrode materials and surface area, electrode spacing, and MFC's cell shape was investigated. To the best of our knowledge, no investigation has been reported in the literature to implement an annular single-chamber microbial fuel cell (ASCMFC) using chocolate industry wastewater. ASCMFC was fabricated via optimization of the stated parameters. The aspects of ASCMFC were comprehensively examined. In this study, the optimization of electrode spacing and its impact on performance of the ASCMFC were conducted. Reduction of electrode spacing by 46.15% (1.3-0.7 cm) resulted in a decrease in internal resistance from 100 to 50 Ω, which enhanced the power density and current output to 22.898 W/m(3) and 6.42 mA, respectively. An optimum electrode spacing of 0.7 cm was determined. Through this paper, the effects of these parameters and the performance of ASCMFC are also evaluated.

Impacts of process parameters optimization on the performance of the annular single chamber microbial fuel cell in wastewater treatment

“…An air‐cathode ASCMFC in cylindrical shape was fabricated and assembled as reported in our previous study (Fig. ) . An approximately 91 mm diameter coaxial cylinder was created with 71 mm diameter inner cylinder and 30 mm length.…”

“…A 3.5 cm (height) × 11 cm (length) 30 wt% wet proofed carbon cloth (Type A, E‐TEK, Somerset, NJ, USA), with 0.5 mg/cm 2 of Pt on the liquid‐facing side, was placed in the inner cylinder as the cathode electrode . The design was modified by fixing electrode spacing at 0.7 cm and the optimized ASCMFC was acquired by considering our previous work . The system was monitored using a data acquisition system at an interval of 15 min to record the voltage outputs of the ASCMFC.…”

“…The reactor was inoculated with 3 mL of mixed culture, which was adopted with a mixture (1:1) of wastewater and growth media solution in the fed‐batch mode once each 2 days for over 2 months. A series of experiments were performed in order to evaluate optimized electrode spacing in the ASCMFC configuration by described procedure in the previous study . The external resistances in the circuit (open circuit, 1000, 800, 600, 500, 300, 200, 150, 100, and 50 Ω) were investigated separately with the optimized cell, based on multiple‐cycle method .…”

“…In the best of our knowledge there is not any investigation to specify consequences of operational parameters on ASCMFC outputs. In this study, examinations are performed on the ASCMFC, which is obtained from the previous study with optimized electrode spacing . The present paper was aimed to evaluate the performance of the system subjected to variation in temperature, pH, and wastewater chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration, which led to obtain optimum values of each of these parameters.…”

Microbial fuel cell with a nano-membrane and two expired medicinal drug-feeding cathode: a novel strategy

“…Some researchers studied the principles of MFC especially in selecting microorganisms of interest [11], economical substrate [12], pilot-plant study for power production [13], modeling of biofilm constitution with engineering aspect [14], and role of electron acceptors in MFCs [30], respectively. The other groups verified the importance of this technology for power production [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Several kinds of mediators had applied in such system to augment the electron transfer rate, but they are generally expensive to be used in pilot or industrial scale program of MFC manufacture and showed toxicity to secreted biocatalysts for longperiod operation [22].…”