Influence of Nickel molybdate nanocatalyst for enhancing biohydrogen production in microbial electrolysis cell utilizing sugar industrial effluent

Biohydrogen production in Microbial Electrolysis Cell (MEC) had inspired the researchers to overcome the challenges associated towards sustainability. Despite microbial community and various substrates, economical cathode catalyst development is most significant factor for enhancing hydrogen production in the MEC. Hence, in this study, the performance of MEC was investigated with a sugar industry effluent (COD 4200 +/- 20 mg/L) with graphite anode and modified Nickel foam (NF) cathode. Nickel molybdate (NiMoO4) coated NF achieved a higher hydrogen production rate 0.12 +/- 0.01 L.L-1D-1 as compared to control under favorable conditions. Electrochemical characterizations demonstrated that the improved catalytic activity of novel nanocatalyst with lower impedance favoring faster hydrogen evolution kinetics. The MEC with the novel catalyst performed with 58.2% coloumbic efficiency, 20.36% cathodic hydrogen recovery, 11.96% overall hydrogen recovery and 54.38% COD removal efficiency for a 250 mL substrate during 5 days' batch cycle. Hence, the potentiality of modified cathode was established with the real time industrial effluent highlighting the waste to wealth bio-electrochemical technology.

Automated summary

This study investigated the performance of a Microbial Electrolysis Cell (MEC) using a sugar industry effluent with an enhanced Nickel foam cathode, achieving higher hydrogen production rate and satisfactory COD removal efficiency. The research demonstrated the potential of the modified cathode for improved bio-electrochemical technology in converting waste to wealth.