Enhancing microbial fuel cell performance using ceramic additive as biomedia

Abstract

The ever-increasing pollution on our planet demands the development of clean technologies. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is one technology with multiple benefits, including, but not limited to, wastewater treatment, bioelectricity generation, heavy metal toxicity reduction, and fertiliser production through catholyte formation. In-situ catholyte production in MFCs requires more research to understand how it can be tailored for biofertiliser and bioelectricity production. This study aims to produce better quality catholyte and observe its correlation with bioelectricity generation using ceramic additives known as biomedia. To evaluate its effect on catholyte electrosynthesis and concomitant production of bioelectricity, a mix of fine-grained ceramic additives was introduced to the anolyte. Over the course of the experiment, it was observed that the synthesis of catholyte in MFCs containing biomedia, was 35 % higher in volume compared to that of the MFCs without biomedia, and the electrical conductivity increased to a maximum of 15.72 mS/cm with pH 11.23 with elements such as aluminium being removed from the wastewater in the anode. The current and power generation were also significantly higher in biomedia-MFCs, which suggests its correlation with better quality catholyte. The novel approach of using low cost ceramic additives to amend anolytewas demonstrated as an effective strategy to enhance catholyte production combined with high electricity generation in MFC.

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ORCID for Yannis Ieropoulos: orcid.org/0000-0002-9641-5504

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