Processing of electroplating industry wastewater through dual chambered microbial fuel cells (MFC) for simultaneous treatment of wastewater and green fuel production

Microbial fuel cells (MFC) provide a breakthrough development for wastewater treatment combined with electricity production. Though, MFC applications are restricted in labora-tory scale level. Present study an effort has been made to employ the electroplating in-dustrial wastewater as feedstock in dual chambered anaerobic microbial fuel cell for organic content removal as well as energy production. The ultimate goal of this research is to analyze the effect of organic load (OL) on removal of organic matter and power pro-duction. The maximum removal efficiency of total, soluble oxygen demands (TCOD, SCOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) of about 87%, 79% and 72% respectively was obtained at the OL of 1.5 gCOD/L. The maximum power and current density of about 260 mW/m2 (6.2 W/m3) and 364 mA/m2 was also recorded at a same OL of 1.5 gCOD/L. From the above findings proposed that utilization of high strength organic wastewater in MFC could pave the way to handle the problem of electroplating industries as well as minimize a small portion of energy demand.(c) 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Microbial fuel cells (MFC) offer a breakthrough solution for wastewater treatment and electricity production. This study focuses on using electroplating industrial wastewater as feedstock in a dual chamber anaerobic microbial fuel cell to remove organic content and generate energy. The findings demonstrate that the MFC efficiently removes organic matter and produces power, with the highest removal efficiency and power density achieved at an organic load of 1.5 gCOD/L.