Utilization of Distillery Effluent as Substrate for Power Generation with Optimized Parametric Conditions using Microbial Fuel Cell

Abstract

Distillery effluents create many environmental problems via their direct disposal in open ponds. There is a need to explore the technology for treating such wastes and making useful energy from it. In the modern era, Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) are gaining popularity regarding working mechanism for treating wastewater as well as electricity generation. Current study primarily focuses to utilize distillery effluent as valuable substrate in microbial fuel cell coupled with a parametric effect. Saccharomyces cerevisiae were utilized as biocatalyst in MFC with different organic loads in the form of substrate concentration followed by various aeration rate, and pH for power generation. With numerous changes in aeration rate, substrate concentration, and pH values automatically effect on power generation. The maximum power generation was observed at 175 mg/l about power density 69 mW/m 2 , current density 82.48 mA/m 2 , voltage 770 mv, power 0.6391 mW and current 0.83 mA. It is concluded that by utilizing microbial fuel cell we can handle the problem associated with distillery wastewater. A further study could be done on the modification of the process based on commercial and different operational aspects.

Recent progress in microbial fuel cells using substrates from diverse sources

“…Several studies have been conducted to evaluate the performance of MFCs by varying key operational parameters. These parameters include substrate concentration, microorganism load, conductivity, pH, and electrode material [ 117 , 257 ]. An H-type MFC used a mixture of distillery wastewater diluted with sewage wastewater [ 258 ].…”

Improving fermentation industry sludge treatment as well as energy production with constructed dual chamber microbial fuel cell

“…However, there is a little information about the catalytic activity and electron transfer without an exogenous mediator for the Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells. Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae [2,14,15] was procured from the market in lyophilized form (saf-instant dry yeast) and used as biocatalyst to inoculate into the anode chamber of Microbial Fuel Cell for electricity generation from sludge. Saccharomyces cerevisiae were grown on growth medium [15] described in Table 2.…”

“…Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae [2,14,15] was procured from the market in lyophilized form (saf-instant dry yeast) and used as biocatalyst to inoculate into the anode chamber of Microbial Fuel Cell for electricity generation from sludge. Saccharomyces cerevisiae were grown on growth medium [15] described in Table 2. The medium was sterilizing by autoclaving at 120 °C and 16 psig for 22 min.…”

Parametric Effect of Distillery Effluent as Substrate in Microbial Fuel Cell for Power Generation

“…The salt bridges were fixed to the bottles with the aid of epoxy adhesive. The electrodes were inserted into respective chambers while circuit connections were set with the copper wires fixed into the drilled holes of the electrodes and sealed with epoxy resin to avoid corrosion of copper wire (Jatoi et al, 2018). The fabricated MFCs were sterilized with Ethanol (70 %) and irradiated with UV for 15 min.…”

“…The growing demand for energy, depletion of fossil fuels and increasing concerns of environmental issues have challenged researchers to develop new technological processes to generate clean and sustainable energy mainly through the utilization of renewable energy sources (Cai et al, 2013;Jatoi et al, 2016c;Jatoi et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2014;Logan et al, 2006). Recently, microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has emerged as a promising sustainable technology to meet increasing energy demand that can utilize organic materials as a fuel (Pant et al, 2010;Yusoff et al, 2013) .…”