The Effect of Different Parameters on Single Chamber Photosynthesis SMFC Based on Electricity Generation as a by- product Item

Abstract

The depletion of non-renewable energy resources and global water shortage has led to search and develop alternative renewable sources such as utilization of microbial fuel cell in different applications. Photosynthesis Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells (P-SMFCs) is one form of sustainable green energy source which that produced electricity while treating wastewater, although many studies for P-SMFCs are related to its main function as a wastewater treatment unit, there are limited information about the effected factors on the power generation of single chamber P-SMFCs using wastewater as a fuel source. Current study will focus on the affected parameters on byproduct (power generation) such as; electrode distance and location, electrodes surface area, temperature, and cathode aeration. A cylindrical container filled with a gravel filter, the anode and cathode electrodes were fixed on different layers of the filter, as were planting paper plants available and used in previous studies. This system was feed in batch mood with wastewater that collected from Al-Rustamiyah WWTP. Results showed that; Electricity generation performed better when minimize the distance between anode and cathode with maximum voltage of 1050±10mV at 5cm while maximum voltage of 588 ±30 mV at 8cm, Electricity generation is proportional to increase the electrodes surface area, whereas 440 cm2 produced more voltage than 220cm2 and 110cm2 which was (1553±12 mV, 1217±9 mV, and 1050±10mV ) on 10th day respectively, Three temperature values were examined in this study (36,32,25)C° and the beast performance was at 32C° which is related to the suitable temperature value for metabolism process, and Electricity generation dropped from 2074±18 mV to 1884±18 mV when applied aeration to the system.