Electricity Generation From Synthetic Wastewater in a Laboratory Scale Microbial Fuel Cell

Abstract

Recently, natural energy sources were exhausted with developing technology in all of the world. This problem caused to increase scientific researches that intensified to find new alternative energy sources. One of the these new alternative energy sources is microbial fuel cells (MFC). MFCs have been studied for sustainable enegry generation and wastewater treatment technology. MFC is a system that can convert chemical energy in organic matters to electric energy directly. In MFC system, wastewater is also treated together with energy production. Unlike a conventional bioreactor, MFCs consist of compartments or elements for electrochemical reactions, including an anode chamber, a cathode and often an ion exchange membrane. Microorganisms grown as attached to carbon electrode in anode chamber oxidizes organics in wastewater and converts to H+ ions and electrones. In the literature, several reactor types are developed in different researches. In this study, a laboratory scale reactor (kubic type-KMFC) is used for electricity production and also organic removal. Synthetic wastewater was used in the reactor and energy production was measured together with COD removal efficiencies.

Keywords

• Atıksu arıtımı, Mikrobiyal yakıt hücreleri, Enerji üretimi.