Application of Air-cathode Microbial Fuel Cell to Industrial Wastewater

Abstract

Electricity is generated by using Microbial Fuel Cell with PTFE coated with cathode surface. Although not all of reactors have successful start-up, in these four trials, the maximum COD removal efficiency reached 87.40%, Coulomb Efficiency reached 49.57% and power density obtained was 147mW/m2. In this study, the results show that there is no relationship between air-cathode surface area and peak voltage. The above results and figures show that using microorganism to biodegrade industrial wastewater and produce the power back to utility is feasible at laboratory level, how to large-scale application for manufacture plant and wastewater treatment plant cast a problem for current MFC research.