Bioelectricity Generation From Single-Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells With Various Local Soil Media and Green Bean Sprouts as Nutrient

Busroni Busroni,Misto Misto,Tri Mulyono,Siswanto Siswanto

doi:10.14710/ijred.2020.30145

Busroni Busroni, Misto Misto + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.2020.30145

Copy DOI

Abstract

In this experiment, seven single-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were made and filled with various types of local agricultural soil and sediments found in irrigation channels, which were mixed with glucose and green bean sprouts mashed as nutrients for microbial survival. MFC electric power was measured every day for 35 days. Every time low electric power indicated weak microbial activity, green bean sprouts were added. The highest electric power of 118 µW (23.4 mW/m2) was observed in fuel cells filled with agricultural land planted with rice. Power density reached the range of 120–140 mW/m2, whereas the incubation time showed a maximum of 35 days. This study found that adding green bean sprouts can increase the length of the MFC cycle and strengthen the generated power up to 122 mW.

Highlights

Producing energy from organic waste is becoming increasingly important because energy production from fossil fuels has become more expensive and not environmentally friendly, and this causes climate change problems
The power density that can be produced by Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is in the range of 10–14 mW/m2, whereas MCFs that use mixed media are reportedly producing slightly larger power density values from 0.3 to 3600 mW/m2
Seven single-chamber MFCs were operated for 3 days with each type of soil

Summary

Introduction

Producing energy from organic waste is becoming increasingly important because energy production from fossil fuels has become more expensive and not environmentally friendly, and this causes climate change problems. The use of mixed membrane materials has been investigated in a number of articles about MFCs, and more recently, bioelectricity has been produced using energy sources from wastewater (Tharali et al, 2016). With this substrate, the power density that can be produced by MFCs is in the range of 10–14 mW/m2, whereas MCFs that use mixed media are reportedly producing slightly larger power density values from 0.3 to 3600 mW/m2. Several researchers conducted a study by inserting artificial waste water into a reactor (He et al, 2016; Xu et al, 2016; Asai et al, 2017) with mud media, and they observed a 20-fold increase in current

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion