Impact of Nutrients and Catholyte Buffer on Bioelectricity Generation in Microbial Fuel Cell Treating Municipal Wastewater

Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is an emerging, eco-friendly, and cost-effective technique that uses organic substrate as a source of chemical energy for conversion into bioelectricity. However, challenges such as lower power production and inefficient degradation of wastes are required to be overcome for the commercialization of MFC technology. This study investigated the impact of nutrient addition and catholyte buffer on the performance of MFCs using Carbon Felt (CF) and Nickel Foam (NF) as anodes, with and without polyaniline (PANI) modification. A dual chamber MFC was used with a domestic wastewater strength of ~1000 mg/L (COD). The addition of nutrients and catholyte buffer (500 mM) resulted in an increase in power density and COD removal when compared to the control MFC without nutrient addition and with catholyte buffer (100 mM). Further, modification of the CF and NF anode with polyaniline leads to an increase in power generation and COD removal. The highest power density (522.7 ± 24 mW/m2) and COD removal (87%) were observed using PANI@NF as the anode in MFC using nutrients for microbial growth and 500 mM catholyte buffer. The current study is likely to have a favorable impact on the development of a sustainable and environment-friendly method of producing bioenergy.