Treating The Tofu Wastewater (TWW) using a Green Technology of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) System

Abstract

Tofu is one of the favorable food products that is produced from soybeans. It can be easily produced, contains high nutrition, is cheap, and its raw material is abundant. Unfortunately, a lot of wastewaters are generated during the tofu production process. Generally, tofu wastewater (TWW) contains high organic pollutants which can reduce the water quality when it is directly discharged into the river. This work tries to reduce the organic pollution levels in TWW by using a green technology of microbial fuel cell (MFC) system. The eciency of TWW treatment was determined based on the reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) levels, decrement of total suspended solid (TSS) and pH changes. In addition, the amount of the electrical generated by MFC during the TWW treatment was investigated as a value added. The results showed that maximum COD and BOD removals were obtained 60.2 ± 2.0% and 61.5 ± 7.6%, respectively. Whereas, the decrement of TSS was observed at 42.7 ± 1.6%. Moreover, the electrical generation involves the current density the power and of MFC were obtained 389.9 ± 23.0 mA/m2 and 110.8 ± 9.1 mW/m2, respectively. These results indicate the MFC could be used to treat the TWW and generate the electrical power at the same time.

Keywords

• tww treatment
• mfc
• organic pollutants
• current generation