Relationship between organic removal and power production in a dual-chamber microbial fuel cell with intermittent mode

Abstract

Unoptimised simultaneous performance in microbial fuel cell (MFC) is still a big concern due to a lack of information on the correlation between organic removal and power production. Its correlation becomes more substantial owing to the main factors which affect a concurrent condition. To contribute new insight, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between the main factors for determining the optimal condition of MFC performance. Dual-chamber MFC (DCMFC) was designed by modifying the anode chamber into two compartments, namely double anode chamber DCMFC (DAC-DCMFC), operated within 8 days running with intermittent mode. The differences of organic loading rate (OLR), 0.4; 1.0; 2.5 kg.m−3.d−1 represented low to high organic loadings and electrode material-based reactor types, were used to assign the optimal concomitant performance in DCMFC. A closed circuit voltage (CCV) wiring system plugged onto the data logger within running time was employed to evaluate the synchronous achievement. This study result was medium OLR 1.0 kg.m−3.d−1, and GNPs anode-PTFE cathode attained optimally in the performance. In addition, higher OLR does not indicate higher organic removal correlating linearly with power production. This finding contributes to the limitation of organic loading that biological role capabilities can use.