Application of microbial fuel cell and high voltage booster in the dual cathode electro-Fenton treatment of RO16 dye

Abstract

The microbial fuel cell (MFC) powered dual cathode electro-Fenton (DCEF) advanced oxidation process was used for the Reactive Orange 16 (RO16) dye treatment. As MFC is known for its high membrane costs and low power densities, we used a single-chamber MFC with anodic cell exposure to air to limit the substrate loss caused by the methanogenesis activity and achieve higher power output. The developed MFC shows 672.20 mW/m3 of maximum volumetric power density (Pmax). Although, the developed MFCs generate renewable energy from wastewater; the resulting power is too low for any practical application. Therefore, we designed here a newly developed low-voltage booster (LVB) to extract useful power. With the low output, the MFC voltage (around 0.4 V) was effectively increased to 12.2 ± 0.02 V without experiencing any voltage reversal problems. Furthermore, even after detaching the LVB from the MFC, the boosted voltage (12.2 ± 0.02 V) was consistently maintained for more than 10 h. We believe that this type of low voltage booted electrical circuit MFC-powered system will offer a more energy-efficient and economical method for treating textile industrial dye pollutants.