Processing of electroplating industry wastewater through dual chambered microbial fuel cells (MFC) for simultaneous treatment of wastewater and green fuel production

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFC) provide a breakthrough development for wastewater treatment combined with electricity production. Though, MFC applications are restricted in laboratory scale level. Present study an effort has been made to employ the electroplating industrial wastewater as feedstock in dual chambered anaerobic microbial fuel cell for organic content removal as well as energy production. The ultimate goal of this research is to analyze the effect of organic load (OL) on removal of organic matter and power production. The maximum removal efficiency of total, soluble oxygen demands (TCOD, SCOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) of about 87%, 79% and 72% respectively was obtained at the OL of 1.5 gCOD/L. The maximum power and current density of about 260 mW/m2 (6.2 W/m3) and 364 mA/m2 was also recorded at a same OL of 1.5 gCOD/L. From the above findings proposed that utilization of high strength organic wastewater in MFC could pave the way to handle the problem of electroplating industries as well as minimize a small portion of energy demand.