Influence of Inoculum Pretreatment on the Performance of an Air-Cathode Single-Chamber Microbial Fuel Cell

Abstract

Air-cathode single-chamber microbial fuel cells (SCMFC) using the heat pretreated seed inoculation showed shorter period of biofilm formation with the maximum current output after 25 days inoculation when compared to the non-heat pretreated seed inoculation (45 days). The results showed the high performance of the heat pretreated seed inoculation in term of a peak of voltage and current generation, except the high COD and reducing sugar removal. Better voltammogram in oxidation and reduction peaks of the heat pretreated seed anode biofilm was observed. The current densities increased with the increases of wastewater concentrations and obtained maximum of 7.37mA m-2 of 3,000mg COD L-1 for the heat pretreated seed inoculation. In addition, the current outputs and wastewater concentrations displayed a linear correlation in the concentration range of 500 to 3,000mg COD L-1 (r2=0.96).