Power Generation and Brewery Wastewater Sludge Treatment by Salt Bridge Mediated Microbial Fuel Cell

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the potential of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) to utilize brewery wastewater sludge as input for electricity generation and treatment of the sludge. The characterization of the brewery wastewater sludge before and after it goes through the microbial fuel cell was analyzed. The effect of varying salt concentrations (1 M, 2M and 3M) of the salt bridge in MFC have been analyzed with different factors like temperature (20 to 45 °C) and pH (4 to 10). Results were analyzed in terms of efficiency in Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD₅) removal and capability of energy generation. The optimum temperature was found 32.5 °C, with the optimum pH of 7 and 3 M salt bridge concentration in which the maximum removal percentage and power generation was observed. At the optimum condition, the observed power output, removal percentage of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD₅) were 0.88 V, 93.58% and 93.07% respectively. Box-Behnken experimental design (BBD) has been used to find the optimum condition for voltage production, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD₅) removal percentage.