Comparative study of bioelectricity generation by microbial degradation of organic wastes using microbial fuel cell

Abstract

In the present project, we investigate to generate bioelectricity from organic wastes such as Citrus sinensis peel slurry and Oryza sativa waste water and characterize the electrogenic bacteria responsible for the generation of bioelectricity. The maximum voltage of about 0.8V was generated from Citrus sinensis peel slurry in 16 days, whereas 0.642V was generated in a period of 14 days from Oryza sativa waste water. In series connection of microbial fuel cells, voltage of 2.850V was measured. Four electrogenic bacterial isolates were obtained from the anode of microbial fuel cell and various biochemical characterization tests were performed. The effect of addition of different concentrations of glucose to the anode chamber of microbial fuel cell along with the organic wastes was analysed and 3g/l was found to be the optimum glucose concentration to increase the performance of microbial fuel cell. The output from the microbial fuel cells can be implemented to power low power consuming devices and biosensors.