Feeding a Membrane-less Microbial Fuel Cell by Mixed Municipal and Industrial Wastewater

Abstract

Due to the constant growth of the world's population, the amount of generated wastewater is also constantly increasing. One of the devices that can use wastewater as a raw material for energy production is a microbial fuel cell (MFC). MFCs technology is constantly evolving. However, to increase its use, it is necessary to improve its efficiency. There are various possibilities to ensure this, such as the use of new electrode materials, new cell designs, or the use of wastewaters from different sources. In this paper the analysis of MFC operation (cell voltage, power, and current density) fed by mixed municipal and industrial wastewaters was shown. Moreover, the change in time of COD was analyzed. Due to cost reduction the membrane-less microbial fuel cell (ML-MFC) was chosen. It was noted that the addition of concentrated process wastewater increases the COD reduction time in the ML-MFC. An increase of generated bioelectricity during fed ML-MFC by mixed municipal and industrial (process wastewater from yeast production) wastewater was demonstrated. The highest values of average cell voltage (598 mV), maximum power (4.47 mW) and maximum current density (0.26 mA·cm-2) were obtained for a 10% share of yeast process wastewater in the mixed wastewater, which fed the ML-MFC.