Agro-Industry Waste Fed Microbial Electrolysis Cell for Biohydrogen Production

Abstract

The microbial electrolysis cell is gaining advantage over the other biological hydrogen production techniques as it requires less energy for hydrogen generation as compared to the water electrolysis process. The present study aims to assess the aptness of Agro-Industry Waste (AIW) fed membrane-less single chambered Microbial Electrolysis Cell (SC-MEC) for the biohydrogen production in batch mode under applied voltage of 1 V at 30 ± 2 °C (Fig.1). The performance of the reactor was assessed through volume of hydrogen per gram of COD removed, columbic efficiency, cathodic hydrogen recovery and COD removal efficiency. The highest COD removal of 71% was reported with columbic efficiency of around 45%. These results demonstrated an energy-efficient approach for biohydrogen production from AIW coupled with waste mitigation.