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Research Article Volume 1 Issue 1
Bio-electricity generation from sugar mill waste water using MFC
Anand Parkash
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Department of Chemical Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Pakistan
Correspondence: Anand Parkash, Department of Chemical Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan
Received: December 27, 2017 | Published: March 26, 2018
Citation: Parkash A. Bio-electricity generation from sugar mill waste water using MFC. MOJ Curr Res & Rev. 2018;1(2):30-31. DOI: 10.15406/mojcrr.2018.01.00006
Abstract
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have gained a lot of interest in recent years as a mode of converting organic waste including wastewaters and lingo-cellulosic biomass into electricity. Microbial production of electricity may become an important form of bio energy in future because MFCs offer the possibility of extracting electric current from a wide range of soluble or dissolved complex organic wastes and renewable biomass. In this regard, thestudy was made to see the potential of sugar mill wastewater for a bio-electricity generation. Double chamber microbial fuel cell was used for sugar mill wastewater as a substrate for electricity generation. Different parametric effect was used to investigate the optimum condition for electricity generation.
Keywords: Bio treatment, Electricity Generation, Sugar Mill Waste Water, MFC
Introduction
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) appear as a new possibility for the treatment of organic wastes.1,2 They are similar to conventional fuel cells but make use of electro-active microorganisms as catalysts for the oxidation and/or reduction reactions. In the typical case, a biofilm of these microorganisms oxidizes organic matter in the wastewater, obtaining carbon and electrons. After consuming part of their energy for growth, bacterial cells transfer the electrons to the conductive bio film matrix, or eventually to an external electron shuttle. Finally, during the electrochemical oxidation (anodic reaction) ofredox molecules located at the bio film/electrode interface, electrons are transferred to the electrode.1−4 After traveling through an external circuit electron are consumed in the cathode compartment to reduce oxygen (in the typical cathode reaction), thus closing the electric circuit for electricity production.2 MFCs are considered an attractive alternative for waste water treatment because they offer the possibility of generating electrical energy directly from the oxidation of organic matter. They have been studied either as the unique energy recovering process 5−7 or as an additional treatment to be included after an anaerobic digestion step.1,2,4 Some studies have demonstrated that the indigenous microbial population of many industrial wastewaters can be used as the source inoculum of electricity-producing microorganisms.6−8
Materials and methods
Materials
Speci saccharomyces service used.
Sugar mill wastewater collected.
Results and discussion
Electricity generation from sugar mill wastewater using microbial fuel cell wasunderstudy to optimize the parametric effect on that, to measure the potential of sugar mill wastewater different operational parameter were under study.
Effect of oxygen flow rate on electricity generation
During the running of themicrobial fuel cell, different ranges of oxygen flow rate were tested to investigate the optimum condition for electricity generation from sugar mill waste water. From 100-250ml/min was analyzed periodically to measure the voltage generation using 50Ω resister with the help of digital multi meter. In Figure 1, it is clearly observed that when oxygen flow rate increasing up to the level of 200ml/min voltage generation were also increased up to the 360 mg/l after a 24-hour period of time for microbial growth.
Figure 1 Effect of oxygen flow rate on electricity generation.
Effect of pH on electricity generation
The microbial growth of Saccharomyces cell during the running of microbial fuel cell affected by pH due to tolerable pH ranges of microbe’s species increased. From 4.5 -5.5 were tested with step size 5 using buffer solution to maintain the pH ranges according to required range of p Hunder a 48hr running period of MFC. The maximum voltage generated from the microbial fuel cell by utilizing sugar mill waste water. In Figure 2 effect of pH on electricity generation clearly observed.
Figure 2 Effect of pH on electricity generation.
Effect of substrate utilization on electricity generation
Power production was observed to increase with the increase in the substrate concentration (Figure 3). Starting from about 10% concentration of the substrate, the power obtained at this substrate concentration was 0.725V. At the substrate concentration of 70% power generation was increased by 2.5V. Further increases in the concentration up to 100 % resulted in the decrease in power production by more than 100% when it reached the value of 1V. This was probably due to the reduction in the activity of the enzymes owing to various factors such as pH. This also indicates that higher concentration of the substrate could actually affect the anode performance significantly resulting in simultaneous lesser power production.
Figure 3 Effect of substrate utilization on electricity generation.
Conclusion
Microbial fuel cell had many advantages overutilization of Sugar mill waste water. It can be easily extracted out energy from primary fermented sludge by utilizing as a substrate in a microbial fuel cell with Saccharomyces cell present already in it. Different parametric effect on electricity generation was investigated.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express his sincere thanks for the lab facilities provided for this work in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro.
Conflict of interest
I declare no conflict of interest.
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