Whey as a substrate for generation of bioelectricity in microbial fuel cell using E.coli

Abstract

While oil prices raise and the supply remains unsteady, it may be beneficial to use the high content of energy available in food processing wastes, such as cheese whey waste, by converting it to bioenergy. As well, there have been many new waste biotreatment technologies developed recently, which may well be used directly to food processing wastes. Microbial fuel cell represents a new technology for simultaneous use of waste materials and bioelectricity generation. In this study, bioelectricity generation with whey degradation was investigated in a twochamber microbial fuel cell with mediators. E.coli was able to use the carbohydrate found in whey to generate bioelectricity. The open-circuit voltage in absence of mediator was 751.5mV at room temperature. The voltage was stable for more than 24 h. Riboflavin and humic acid were used as conceivable mediators. The results showed that humic acid was a few times more effective than Riboflavin. Additionally, four chemicals employed as catholyte. Based on polarization curve, FeCl 3 (É É É) was the best. Maximum power generation and current were 324.8 ì W and 1194.6ìA, respectively.

Enhanced electricity generation from whey wastewater using combinational cathodic electron acceptor in a two-chamber microbial fuel cell

“…Maximum power generation and current among these taken figures were 562.9 lW and 1906.1 lA, respectively. As it is clear, a remarkable increase in power is observed in comparison with previous work that just was adding mediators without using any combinational mode or changing in other factor effecting on MFCs like aeration or likewise (Nasirahmadi and Safekordi 2011).…”

“…The previous materials and methods were applied in this work (Nasirahmadi and Safekordi 2011). Whey was obtained from Gela dairy product Industry (Amol, Iran).…”

“…A proper approach for improving power output is adding chemical electron acceptors like permanganate in cathode compartment (You et al 2006). To best of our knowledge, there is no exact information in this special system except for the work done by the current authors (Nasirahmadi and Safekordi 2011). On the other hand, this work is the resumption of the previous one.…”

Review of underground coal gasification technologies and carbon capture

“…The anode mediator and cathodic electron shuttles was supplied by Merck (Darmstadt, Germany). Figure 1 depicts the schematic diagram of the MFC and its auxiliary equipment [3,4], made of plexy glass material. The total volume of Fig.…”

“…A great volume of expired and outdated drugs as well as generated wastewater determined by chemical and biological oxygen demand (COD and BOD) concentrations [1][2][3][4] are other important issue imposing lots of expense on governments around the world. In addition, Whey is a well-known product of cheese processing industry [5,6] and could be used as suggested biochemical analyte for generation of bio-derived source electricity.…”