Abstract
Pre-treatment methods for seed sludge which are capable of selectively enriching the electrogenic bacteria in a microbial fuel cell (MFC) need to be employed in order to enhance the electricity production. Effect of combined pre-treatments such as acid-ultrasonication pre-treatment (AU), acid-heat pre-treatment (AH), and ultrasonication-heat pre-treatment (UH) on anaerobic mixed sludge to be used as inoculum in a dual chambered MFC was evaluated. All pre-treatments were found to have an incremental effect on the power generation and Coulombic efficiency. MFC inoculated with acid-ultrasonication pre-treated sludge achieved an increment of 520 % in power density (2.91 W m−3) and 276 % in Coulombic efficiency (6.2 %) than that produced by control MFC operated with untreated sludge as inoculum. Acid-ultrasonication pre-treatment was found to be the most effective inoculum pre-treatment, followed by acid-heat pre-treatment and ultrasonication-heat pre-treatment.
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