Bioelectricity generation from waste potatoes using single chambered microbial fuel cell

Abstract

A microbial fuel cell is an efficient, cost-effective, and green methodology for electricity production and wastewater treatment. A single chambered microbial fuel cell (SCMFC) was designed to generate electric power from potato wastewater and also treated in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD). A copper anode and zinc cathode were used as electrodes in the current study. Furthermore, best-optimized conditions of room temperature, pH 7, 90 Ω external resistances, and the presence of acetic acid substrate provides the maximum value of 12.45 mA current. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of potato wastewater was calculated to evaluate the efficiency of SCMFC in treating potato wastewater. The results of optimization showed that maximum voltage obtained from SCMFC was 1.12 V (1120 mV) while COD removal was 40% which indicated that microbial fuel cells are alternative sources of fossil fuels to generate electrical energy from waste along with their treatment.