scholarly journals Analysis of Waste Water for Bioelectric Generation Using Microbial Fuel Cells

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-287
Author(s):  
Shweta Rawat ◽  
Jyoti Rawat

Microbial fuel cell technology is a recent approach which consist renewable and sustainable technology for electricity generation. Great attentions have been paid to microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Since, it recovers energy from renewable materials that can be difficult to dispose, such as organic wastes, waste water etc. and utilize variety of biodegradable substrates as fuel. Through which, microorganisms actively catabolize substrate and generate electricity. Besides many advantages, it still faces some limitations such as low power and current density. In the present research waste water was physically, biologically and chemically tested. We found that waste water has less amount of toxicity. Thus, it was assumed as low strength waste water and used for the MFC setup for bioelectric generation.Initially, the setup was run three times in a small scale. Simultaneously voltage and current was measured at different time intervals. It was observed that in first run, the voltage and current fluctuation data was not significant but voltage generation was varied from 140.8-182.5 mV in final run, correspondingly current fluctuated from 51-352 μA and power varied from 7180.8-66439.1 nW. However, we got highest power density of 0.0215-0.042 mW when the setup was moved in higher scale.Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 4(3): 281-287 

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 3345-3449

Microbial fuel cells play a key role in generating wealth out of waste as they serve the binary purpose of electricity production along with waste treatment. A variety of organic substances can be used as substrates in microbial fuel cells. In this work, three substrates naturally obtained as dairy farm waste, viz. cattle manure, yogurt waste, and cow urine along with their various combinations were tested for power generation in a microbial fuel cell. All three substrates are a promising source of electrogenic bacteria. The potential use of aluminium as electrode material for electricity generation in microbial fuel cell was also investigated. The output circuit voltage was recorded at regular time intervals over a period of around 15-25 days. Maximum output voltage of 1.170 V was recorded for cattle manure as substrate on graphite electrode with a stabilization period of 16 days. The combination of cattle manure and yogurt waste on aluminium electrode gave peak output voltage of 1.122 V with a stabilization period of 10 days. The addition of cow urine did not show any significant increase in the output.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 85

This paper summarises different methods used for the Electrical power generation using microorganisms in Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC), where power generation is done in a microbial environment. Microorganisms are used as catalysts to degrade the supplied source effectively. This bioelectricity production is carried out in an enhanced way in a pollution-free environment. This paper addresses different aspects of electricity generation with the help of microorganisms. Various types of Microbial fuel cells have been described based on their constructional details. One of the different power generation methods is wastewater treatment. Also, hydrogen is generated in this environment, which can be used in fuel cells. Different factors and catalysts used to produce bioelectricity are identified and analyzed. Finally, the power produced in those methods had been compared, and the best method is cited.


2008 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. S474-S475
Author(s):  
Yifeng Zhang ◽  
Liping Huang ◽  
Jingwen Chen ◽  
Xianliang Qiao ◽  
Xiyun Cai

2007 ◽  
Vol 73 (16) ◽  
pp. 5347-5353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanno Richter ◽  
Martin Lanthier ◽  
Kelly P. Nevin ◽  
Derek R. Lovley

ABSTRACT The ability of Pelobacter carbinolicus to oxidize electron donors with electron transfer to the anodes of microbial fuel cells was evaluated because microorganisms closely related to Pelobacter species are generally abundant on the anodes of microbial fuel cells harvesting electricity from aquatic sediments. P. carbinolicus could not produce current in a microbial fuel cell with electron donors which support Fe(III) oxide reduction by this organism. Current was produced using a coculture of P. carbinolicus and Geobacter sulfurreducens with ethanol as the fuel. Ethanol consumption was associated with the transitory accumulation of acetate and hydrogen. G. sulfurreducens alone could not metabolize ethanol, suggesting that P. carbinolicus grew in the fuel cell by converting ethanol to hydrogen and acetate, which G. sulfurreducens oxidized with electron transfer to the anode. Up to 83% of the electrons available in ethanol were recovered as electricity and in the metabolic intermediate acetate. Hydrogen consumption by G. sulfurreducens was important for ethanol metabolism by P. carbinolicus. Confocal microscopy and analysis of 16S rRNA genes revealed that half of the cells growing on the anode surface were P. carbinolicus, but there was a nearly equal number of planktonic cells of P. carbinolicus. In contrast, G. sulfurreducens was primarily attached to the anode. P. carbinolicus represents the first Fe(III) oxide-reducing microorganism found to be unable to produce current in a microbial fuel cell, providing the first suggestion that the mechanisms for extracellular electron transfer to Fe(III) oxides and fuel cell anodes may be different.


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