Electricity production coupled with wastewater treatment using microbial fuel cell

Microbial fuel cells (MFC) offer the direct generation of electricity from different sources of waste water, simultaneously accomplishing waste water treatment. MFC converts organic matter to electricity with the help of microorganisms as biocatalysts. While electricity generation using bacteria has been known to be possible for over a decade, only recent studies have shown that mediators are not required. This development can drive a completely new wastewater treatment technology based on microbial fuel cell. The objective of this study is to enhance the power production efficiency of a single chambered mediatorless microbial fuel cell from waste water using modified anodes. It was observed that this single chambered mediatorless microbial fuel cell was capable of giving higher removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD). In addition, comparison of electricity generation was carried out with plain carbon rods and iron coated carbon rods as anodes. The maximum electricity generation (71μA) and maximum voltage production (351μA) was obtained from MFC with heated iron coated carbon as anode.