Microbial Fuel Cell

At Glance Definition Treatment and energy recovery from high BOD/COD wastewater with Microbial fuel cell based technology

Type User defined project (UDP)

Guide Mr. Manoj Kumar

Team Sagar Divetiya (110990135013)Ayushi Sharma (110990135007)Sanket Rai (110990135012)Yash Kapadia (110990135011)

Major area Reduction in COD of wastewater, Generation of electricity

Keyword Microbial Fuel cell, Bio electrochemical systems

BE Enviromental Science and Technology

Final year Project

Team ID: 25717

Objectives1. Construction of specific experimental setup for MFC.

2. Implementation of precise methodology and evaluation of the same.

3. Selection and preparation of mixed consortia for MFC.

4. Optimization of feed wastewater COD for maximum voltage generation.

5. Evaluate effect of surface area of electrode on electricity generation.

6. Analyze COD reduction of distillery wastewater

7. Analyze voltage generation of distillery wastewater

8. Check feasibility of the technology on distillery wastewater

9. Determine future scope and scale up possibilities

Introduction

Two Crisis we all are facing

Energy Waste management

Found solution by researchers

Solving two problems at one time with a single action

PTM

Anode

Cathod

0.6 v

CO2 H+

e-

O2

H2O

Wastewater Pure water

Electro-active microorganisms

Exoelectrogens Microbes able to transfer electrons to the outside the cell

power

Anode,Microbes

Cathode

e

Picture- http://www.technology.org/2014/04/28/brewing-sustainability-novel-system-uses-microbes-treat-extract-power-wastewater/

Exoelectrogens-Nanowires mechanism

Electrode Microbes

Nanowires

Electrogenic biofilm ecology

• Picture- http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/journal/v7/n5/fig_tab/nrmicro2113_F1.html

Direct contact

By nanowires

By the mediator

Experimental setup

Work done in previous semester…

GTU RegistrationTeam Formation Project approval

Literature Review PSAR Setup Construction

Literature Review

IN MATERIAL AND METHOD AT PAGE NO. 2

WHICH MATERIAL SHOULD BE USE AS ELECTRODE???

WHAT IS ALTERNATIVE OF PEM???

AT PAGE NO. 2 IN MFC CONSTRUCTION

WHICH MICROBES WILL BE USE???

AT PAGE NO. 4 IN MICROBES USED IN MICOBIAL FUEL CELL

WHAT SHOULD BE THE MATERIAL OF CONSTRUCTION OF REACTORS???

ANY NON REACTIVE MATERIAL OR INERT MATERIAL FOR THE

MICROBES ACTIVITY…

AND THE SOLUTION IS Acrylic

Setup construction

Setup construction

Electrode material and surface area

1. Hollow graphite electrode: 200cm2

2. Pencil electrode: 65cm2

Methodology

Preparation of designed wastewater Preparation of inoculum Preparation of salt bridge Setup run on inoculum Collection and Analysis of distillery

wastewater Setup run on distillery wastewater Analysis of treated sample Results and conclusion

Preparation of synthetic wastewater

Synthetic wastewater consists of 0.5 g/l NH4Cl, 0.25 g/l KH2PO4, 0.25 g/l K2HPO4,

0.3 g/l MgCl2, 25 mg/l CoCl2, 11.5 mg/l ZnCl2, 10.5 mg/l CuCl2, 5 mg/l CaCl2, 15 g/l

MnCl2, 3 g/l Glucose, pH 5.5, COD 3.4 g/l.

Preparation of inoculum

Collection of ponds sediment

Pelletizing microbes from marine sediments in centrifuge at 5000rpm and washed trice with saline buffer

Heat-shock treatment (100 ◦C; 2 h) and acid treatment (pH 3 adjusted with orthophosphoric acid (88%); 24 h)

Finally inoculum is prepared

Enriching pellets in synthetic wastewater

Preparation of salt bridge

Take 20g of agar in 500ml of distilled water, provide heat/stirring and dissolve 1 g KCl in it.

Wait until the viscous constituency and pour in to the salt bridge pipe by putting cotton plugs on both side.

Setup run on inoculum

Assemble setup 1L inoculum in anode chamber 1L distilled water + 1g KCL Connect with multimeter

Collection and analysis of distillery wastewater

COD measurement is done by open reflux method.

pH is found to be 4

Setup run on distillery wastewater

Allow microbes to settle down then remove 800mL of synthetic wastewater from chamber.

Pour diluted distillery wastewater.

Operating condition

Temperature : 27˚C ± 5 ˚C

Operating pH : 6 to 7 for distillery w/w Operation carried out for

5 day for synthetic wastewater 12 day for distillery wastewater

Synthetic Wastewater trial

Results

Time (h) Voltage (mV)0 231 572 633 654 645 62

First trialTime (h) Voltage (mV)

0 501 572 683 724 755 75

Second TrialTime (h) Voltage (mV) Current µA Power µW

0 67 28 1.8761 93 41 3.8132 112 56 6.2723 129 72 9.2884 154 112 17.2485 157 116 18.212

Third trial

Time (h) Voltage (mV)0 1121 1342 1693 1734 1875 189

Forth trialTime (h) Voltage (mV)

0 1251 1412 1563 1834 1825 180

Fifth trial

Graphs

0 1 2 3 4 5 60

10203040506070

Trial 1: Voltage (mV) vs Time (h)

0 1 2 3 4 5 60

1020304050607080

Trial 2: Voltage (mV) vs Time (h)

0 1 2 3 4 5 60

20406080

100120140160180

Trial 3: Voltage (mV) vs Time (h)

0 1 2 3 4 5 60

20406080

100120140160180200

Trial 4: Voltage (mV) vs Time (h)

0 1 2 3 4 5 60

20406080

100120140160180200

Trial 5: Voltage (mV) vs Time (h)

0 1 2 3 4 5 602468

101214161820

Trial 3: Power (µW) vs Time (h)

Voltage generation Increase subtract Change electrode

Voltage generation Increase subtract Higher COD load

Observations

• Optimum COD for setup is 10000 to 15000• Power output increase with increase in surface area of electrode

Distillery wastewater trial

Result

Blank reading (ml) Burette reading (ml) COD (mg/l) % Reduction Time(in days) m V24.5 21.1 13600 5.56 1 9024.6 21.6 12000 16.67 2 12624.2 21.6 10400 27.78 3 14824.2 21.9 9200 36.11 4 17524.4 22.5 7600 47.22 5 22124.6 22.9 6800 52.78 6 25024.8 23.5 5200 63.89 7 26024.6 23.4 4800 66.67 8 26824.6 23.5 4400 69.44 9 25824.9 23.8 4400 69.44 10 20325 24 4000 72.22 11 11225 23.9 4400 69.44 12 50

Result

Result

Result

One feasibility study

Energy and The water infrastructure (one small study that shows the potential)

Energy USED for wastewater treatment 1. 15 GW (USA) 2. 0.6 kWh/m2 (range- .12 to 1.2kWh/m2)

New energy source??( waste water) 1. Domestic wastewater contain 17GW (USA) 2. Domestic wastewater generally produce 2-5kWh/m3

Just look at Indian scenario

80%

20%Gray water generatedwater consumed

80% Wastewater Generated of total water domestic supply

1 2 30

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

Sewage generation and treatment capacity in indians cities

Wastewater generate (MLD) Wastewater treatment capacity (MLD)

more than 0.9kWh electricity

generation per kilogram of organic

load

whereas the in conventional

treatment the consumption of

electricity is more than 1.2 kWh per kg

of organic load

Study shows that

Sewage treatment plant canbe converted into the power

house

So no rejection from the

authorities

Game changer

technology

Outcomes of Project Effective even though negligible chemicals are used during operation Methodology synthesized for the experimentation by taking reference of literature is

proved to be successful even though the complexity in understanding MFC operation Pond/Marine sediments works successfully for preparing mixed consortia for microbial

fuel cell. It is observed that according to MFC build, 10000 to 15000 mg/l COD is found optimum

for maximum power generation. Surface area of electrode plays important role in obtaining power output. Considerable COD reduction is observed for industrial (distillery) wastewater Voltage generation was considerable but power output in unrecoverable- can be

enhanced by further research and optimization Microbial fuel cell based treatment of wastewater is found feasible on distillery

wastewater Power output is found considerable but it is not enough for commercial recovery device-

can be enhanced by further research and optimization. Scale up for capacity plant will be possible too.

Conclusion

Experimental data demonstrated the feasibility of dual chambered microbial fuel cell (MFC) in bioelectricity generation from distillery wastewater treatment without using mediator in anode chamber. Designed MFC configuration, adopted operating conditions and used selectively enriched mixed inoculum showed feasibility of power generation from chemical wastewater treatment along with wastewater treatment.

Future scope

Effect of pH Effect of electrode material Effect of temperature Effect of distance between electrode Effect of microbial culture Effect of various wastewater Scale up Pilot plant study Comparison with existing technologies

Major References Bruce E. Logan et al. (2008) “Microbial Fuel Cells: Methodology and Technology” Environ.

Sci. & Technol. Deepak Pant *, Gilbert Van Bogaert, Ludo Diels, Karolien Van broekhoven (2009) “A

review of the substrates used in microbial fuel cells (MFCs)for sustainable energy production” Bio resource Technology

D.Singh, D.Pratap, Y. Baranwal et al. (2010) “Microbial fuel cells: A green technology for power generation” Annals of Biological Research, 2010, 1 (3) : 128-138.

S. Venkata Mohan et al. (2008) “Bioelectricity generation from chemical wastewater treatment in mediatorless (anode) microbial fuel cell (MFC) using selectively enriched hydrogen producing mixed culture under acidophilic microenvironment” Biochemical Engineering Journal 39 (2008) 121–130

Zhuwei Du, Haoran Li , TingyueGu (2007) “A state of the art review on microbial fuel cells: A promising technology for wastewater treatment and bioenergy” Biotechnology Advances 25 (2007) 464–482

Pham (2006) “comparison between aerobic and anaerobic”

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