1. Microbial Fuel Cell

2. 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

3. Objectives
1. 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

4. Introduction

5. Two Crisis we all are facing
Energy Waste management

6. Found solution by researchers
Solving two problems at one time with a single action
P
T
M
A
n
o
d
e
C
a
t
h
o
d
0.6
v
CO2 H+
e-
O2
H2O
Wastewater Pure water

7. 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/

8. Exoelectrogens-Nanowires mechanism

9. Electrogenic biofilm ecology
• Picture- http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/journal/v7/n5/fig_tab/nrmicro2113_F1.html
Direct
contact
By
nanowires
By the
mediator

10. Experimental setup

11. Work done in previous semester…
GTU RegistrationTeam Formation Project approval
Literature Review PSAR Setup
Construction

12. Literature Review

13. IN MATERIAL AND METHOD AT PAGE NO. 2
WHICH MATERIAL SHOULD BE USE AS ELECTRODE???

14. WHAT IS ALTERNATIVE OF PEM???
AT PAGE NO. 2 IN MFC CONSTRUCTION

15. WHICH MICROBES WILL BE USE???
AT PAGE NO. 4 IN MICROBES USED IN MICOBIAL FUEL CELL

16. 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

17. Setup construction

18. Setup construction

19. Electrode material and surface area
1. Hollow graphite electrode: 200cm2
2. Pencil electrode: 65cm2

20. 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

21. 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.

22. 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

23. 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.

24. Setup run on inoculum
 Assemble setup
 1L inoculum in anode chamber
 1L distilled water + 1g KCL
 Connect with multimeter

25. Collection and analysis of distillery
wastewater
 COD measurement is done by open reflux
method.
 pH is found to be 4

26. Setup run on distillery wastewater
 Allow microbes to settle down then remove
800mL of synthetic wastewater from
chamber.
 Pour diluted distillery wastewater.

27. 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

28. Synthetic Wastewater trial

29. Results
Time (h) Voltage (mV)
0 23
1 57
2 63
3 65
4 64
5 62
First trial
Time (h) Voltage (mV)
0 50
1 57
2 68
3 72
4 75
5 75
Second Trial
Time (h) Voltage (mV) Current µA Power µW
0 67 28 1.876
1 93 41 3.813
2 112 56 6.272
3 129 72 9.288
4 154 112 17.248
5 157 116 18.212
Third trial
Time (h) Voltage (mV)
0 112
1 134
2 169
3 173
4 187
5 189
Forth trial
Time (h) Voltage (mV)
0 125
1 141
2 156
3 183
4 182
5 180
Fifth trial

30. Graphs
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Trial 1: Voltage (mV) vs Time (h)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Trial 2: Voltage (mV) vs Time (h)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Trial 3: Voltage (mV) vs Time (h)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Trial 4: Voltage (mV) vs Time (h)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Trial 5: Voltage (mV) vs Time (h)
0
5
10
15
20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Trial 3: Power (µW) vs Time (h)
Voltage generation Increase subtract Change electrode
Voltage generation Increase subtract Higher COD load

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

32. Distillery wastewater trial

33. Result
Blank reading (ml) Burette reading (ml) COD (mg/l) % Reduction Time(in days) m V
24.5 21.1 13600 5.56 1 90
24.6 21.6 12000 16.67 2 126
24.2 21.6 10400 27.78 3 148
24.2 21.9 9200 36.11 4 175
24.4 22.5 7600 47.22 5 221
24.6 22.9 6800 52.78 6 250
24.8 23.5 5200 63.89 7 260
24.6 23.4 4800 66.67 8 268
24.6 23.5 4400 69.44 9 258
24.9 23.8 4400 69.44 10 203
25 24 4000 72.22 11 112
25 23.9 4400 69.44 12 50

34. Result

35. Result

36. Result

37. One feasibility study

38. 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

39. Just look at Indian scenario
80%
20%
Gray water
generated
water
consumed
80% Wastewater Generated of total
water domestic supply
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
1 2 3
Sewage generation and treatment capacity in indians
cities
Wastewater generate (MLD) Wastewater treatment capacity (MLD)

40. 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.

41. 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.

42. 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

43. 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”

44. BMC