Oxidation of vegetable waste and organic pollutant degradation to generate energy through microbial fuel cell

Abstract

The overarching goal of current MFC research is to optimize the production of power output by exploring innovative strategies to enhance electron generation and transportation. The oxidation of the organic substrate produces glucose, which fuels the bacteria in the cell’s operational start-up and activates their electrogenic features. Consequently, organic pollutants wastewater in the MFC system may effectively increase the microorganisms’ ability to produce electrons. As a result, this research compares the impacts of naphthalene (NAPTH) and formaldehyde (FOMA) as organic pollutants in two separate MFCs that operate continuously for 70 days. The maximum power density (PD) of the system was calculated through the collected voltage. The NAPTH system produces greater power (8.73 mW/m²) over the FOMA system, having a maximum power density of 7.84 mW/m². The cell’s performance was assessed using electrochemical tests, such as cyclic voltammetry and the EIS analysis. The specific capacitance (Cp) values were found to be 0.00013 F/g and 0.00019 F/g for the FOMA and NAPTH systems, respectively. Microbial examination of the used anode electrodes was conducted. The dominant specie found were Leucobacter sp. and Pseudomonas sp. NAPTH degradation efficiency was 70% and FOMA degradation efficiency was 75% after 70 days of operation. This is the first study to investigate the impact of diverse organic pollutant degradation on MFC performance while using vegetable waste as an organic substrate. This study provides a comparative assessment of the findings, and future research directions are recommended.