Abstract
Production of bioethanol and bioelectricity is a promising approach through microbial electrochemical technology. Sugars are metabolized by yeast to produces ethanol, CO2, and energy. Surplus electrons produced during the fermentation can be transferred through the circuit to generate electricity in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). In the present study, a membrane-less single-chambered microbial fuel cell was developed for simultaneous production of bioethanol and bioelectricity. Pichia fermentans along with well-known ethanol-producing yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae were allowed to ferment glucose. S. cerevisiae demonstrated maximum open circuit voltage (OCV) 0.287 ± 0.009 V and power density 4.473 mW m−2 on the 15th day, with a maximum ethanol yield of 5.6% (v/v) on the 12th day. P. fermentans demonstrated a maximum OCV of 0.318 ± 0.0039 V and power density of 8.299 mW m−2 on 15th day with an ethanol yield of 4.7% (v/v) on 12th day. Coulombic efficiency (CE) increased gradually from 0.002–0.471% to 0.012–0.089% in the case of S. cerevisiae and P. fermentans, respectively, during 15 days of the experiment. The result indicated that single-chambered fuel cell can be explored for their potential applications for ethanol production along with clean energy generation.
Highlights
Fossil fuels are naturally occurring carbon or hydrocarbon fuel such as peat and coal while natural gases are formed by the decay of plants or animals
This paper presents an approach to explore Microbial fuel cell (MFC) for bioethanol production with simultaneous generation of electricity
Maximum open circuit voltage (OCV) for P. fermentans 0.318 ± 0.0039 V was recorded on 15th day (Fig. 1a)
Summary
Fossil fuels are naturally occurring carbon or hydrocarbon fuel such as peat and coal while natural gases are formed by the decay of plants or animals. The increasing interest in bioethanol production started since 1980s and has been considered as an alternative fuel in many countries It helps to reduce CO2 emission up to 80% as compared to using the petrol, encourages a healthier environment for the future. It is possible that yeast metabolic activity, energy production and its conversion into heat could be efficiently harvested as electricity through a combined approach of MFC during sugar fermentation and ethanol production. The study further evaluates the production of ethanol in MFC by P. fermentans and compared its efficiency with a well-known sugar fermenting yeast S. cerevisiae under a batch type operation in a single chambered Microbial fuel cell. The electrochemical data was generated by calculating current density, power density, output voltage along with the glucose consumption for maximum ethanol yield and fermentation efficiency
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