Electricity Generation from Single Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells using Granular Activated Carbon as Anode for Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

. Locally sourced granule-activated carbon (GAC) has been used in wastewater treatment systems, but it is not widely used in single chamber microbial fuel cells (SCMFCs). The GAC in an anode coupled with a carbon cloth was used in the SCMFCs in this research, with 1.00-L of the GAC added to the carbon cloth in the anode. Three SCMFCs were operated in continuous flow mode. The synthetic wastewater was prepared from rice flour dissolved in tap water, with a chemical oxygen demand (COD) value of 1,816.32 ± 204.78 mg/L. The organic loading rates (OLRs) in the study were 0.91, 1.82, and 7.27 kgCOD/m 3 - d. The maximum power density levels generated by the three SCMFCs were 13.16, 7.96 and 4.11 mW/m 2 from OLRs of 0.91, 1.82, and 7.27 kgCOD/m 3 -d, respectively, and the efficiency rate of COD removal were 24.96%, 24.85%, and 20.75%, respectively. This research also presented a voltage boost converter circuit for charging a 0.25F storage supercapacitor. Only two OLRs provided an electric voltage that could run the circuit (0.49V and 0.45V generated by OLRs of 0.91 and 1.82 kgCOD/m 3 -d, respectively.) The supercapacitor set was charged to reach the maximum output of 5.25 V taking 19.5 hr and 37.5 hr, respectively.