Performance Investigation of Batch Mode Microbial Fuel Cells Fed With High Concentration of Glucose

Xiaoying Kong, Gaixiu Yang and Yongming Sun*

Received: March 05, 2018;   Published: March 16, 2018

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.03.000864

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Abstract

Two-chambered microbial fuel cell (MFC) with Nafion117 as proton exchange membrane (PEM) in the middle of reactors was built to treat the synthetic wastewater containing high concentration of glucose in this work. This MFC can produce 95% removal efficiencies of the maximum chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the highest coulombic efficiency (Ec) of 24.4% at the glucose concentration of 1 g/L. It was found that when the feed of glucose concentration is changed from 0.5 g/L to 4.0 g/L the volumetric power density is decreased from 5.3 W/ m3 to 2.25 W/m3. When the glucose concentration is further increased to 12 g/L, almost no power output was observed. The optimized running concentration of glucose for as-designed MFC is between 0.5-4 g/L at the experimental conditions in this work. This work would pave a way for the direct treatment of wastewater containing high concentration of complex organic contaminants.

In trout farm B, dichlorvos were quantified at 0.0209 mg/L point B1 (tributary) and 0.0578 mg/L point B9 (tributary). All concentrations of pesticides described were above the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) recommended by the European Union. For soil and feed matrices there was no detection of pesticide residues for the trout farms. For the fish matrix there was no detection of residues in trout farm A, but there was detection (within the limit of the equipment) of trout farm B in the tissues: gills, liver and kidney. The physicochemical variables evaluated may have provided the pesticides hydrolysis and the rainy season may have influenced the greater amount of residues in the water, but within the limits of detection of the equipment. However, dry period may have influenced the concentration of chlorpyrifos and dichlorvos. The identification of residues in the rainbow trout tissues in trout farm B in October suggests that further studies should be carried out to verify the possibility of bioconcentration in the tissues due to the different classes of pesticides that can be found in the aquatic environment.

Keywords: Microbial Fuel Cell; Wastewater Treatment; High Substrate Concentration; Glucose

Abbreviations: MFC: Microbial Fuel Cell; PEM : Proton Exchange Membrane; COD: chemical oxygen demand; HPLC: High-Performance Liquid Chromatography; PBS: Phosphate Buffered Solution; VFA: Volatile Fatty Acid

Abstract| Introduction| Material and Methods| Results and Discussion| Conclusion| Acknowledgement| References|