Efficiency and stability of carbon cloth electrodes for electricity production from different types of waste water using duel chamber microbial fuel cell

Abstract

The electricity production from waste water collected from food industry, oil mill, pharmaceutical industry, kitchen and sewage have been studied by microbial fuel cell duel chamber assembly. The set-up was fully designed in our laboratory using acid treated and platinum coated carbon cloth as anode and cathode respectively. Electricity generation and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of these types of water samples were monitored using only 50 mL of waste water in anodic chamber. All 5 samples shows good potential of energy, which is stored in the form of organic waste out of which, sewage waste water produces highest current density (1.025 mA/cm²) and power density (804.0 µW/cm²) at 7^th day of inoculation. The highest COD removal of 91% was observed with sewage waste water. The carbon cloth (CC) anode was characterized for Microbial fuel cell (MFC) application by cyclic voltammetry. The electrode shows stability for 45 days with minor change in resistivity and bio-compatibility.