Wastewater treatment and bioelectricity production in microbial fuel cell: salt bridge configurations

Abstract

This study obtained the maximum pollutant reduction and power production from the dairy industry wastewater using double-chambered salt bridge microbial fuel cell by the Taguchi method. The maximum removal of chemical oxygen demand from dairy industry wastewater was found to be 89.7% in double-chambered salt bridge microbial fuel cell. Similarly, the current, voltage, power, current density and power density obtained in double-chambered salt bridge microbial fuel cell from dairy industry wastewater were 17.28 mA, 815.32 mV, 14.09 mW, 1309.09 mA/m2 and 1067.33 mW/m2, respectively. The maximum removal of chemical oxygen demand and power production was observed for the process parameters viz., 1 M KCl concentration, 10% agarose concentration, and 0.05 m salt bridge. It may be pointed out from the analysis of variance that the order of prevailing process parameters was agarose concentration followed by KCl molar concentration and salt bridge length for getting the maximum pollutants reduction and power production from dairy industry wastewater using double-chambered salt bridge microbial fuel cell. The other pollutants viz., TSS, TDS, BOD, COD, nitrate, phosphate, sulphate, chloride, ammonia, and oil and grease in a dairy industry wastewater also reduced to the maximum for the best-optimized process parameters of 1 M KCl concentration, 10% agarose concentration, and 0.05 m salt bridge. The regression model obtained in this study was utilized to select the appropriate combination of process parameters for obtaining the required maximum reduction of pollutants and simultaneous power production. Thus, this study suggested that double-chambered salt bridge microbial fuel cell can be performed well for maximum pollutant reduction and simultaneous power production for the appropriate process parameters value from any wastewater.