A comparative study of two types of anode electrodes in a microbial fuel cell for producing bioelectricity from residential wastewater

Abstract

The increasing of population growth is positively correlated with the energy demand which leads to fossil fuel depletion. New renewable energy is one of the solutions to address the future energy crisis. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is one of the renewable energy sources since this device is able to convert chemical energy into electrical energy by using microorganisms. Many researchers have studied MFCs from wastewater as a medium for producing electricity through MFC systems. MFC performance depends on microbe metabolism, membrane, and electrodes. This study compared bioelectricity generation on a Batch System of Microbial Fuel Cell from residential wastewater using two types of anode electrodes (zinc plate and graphite rod). The consortium of indigenous wastewater bacteria has been used for MFC. An artificial membrane was made in the laboratory derived from the chitosan-jelly combination. Chitosan was extracted from crustacean shells. The research was conducted in the laboratory by directly measuring the voltage on the MFC system for three (3) days. This research reveals that the MFCs with zinc plate anode electrodes generated higher voltage throughout the days evaluated, with peaks of 970 mV. Meanwhile, MFC with graphite rod anode resulted in 880 mV maximum. This research finding of MFCs with zinc plate as electrode materials could be the key to sustainable bioelectricity generation from wastewater.