Microbial fuel cell (MFC)

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TECHNICAL SEMINAR PRESENTATION
“SUSTAINABLE TREATMENT OF WASTE WATER USING
MICROBIAL FUEL CELL (MFC)”
PRESENTED BY
SUDHANSHU YADAV
(1RV16CV094)
UNDER SUPERVISION OF
SHASHI KIRAN C R
Asst. Professor
Civil Department
RV College of Engineering

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Objectives
 Need
 Literature Survey
 Application
 Advantages
 Designing of MFC
 Working Mechanism
 MFC In Water Treatment
 Bioelectricity Generation
 Power Output
 Challenges
 Future Prospects
 References
16-08-2020 TECHNICAL SEMINAR VIVA 2/34

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INTRODUCTION
 Today we are witnessing a global energy crisis due to huge energy demands and
limited resources.
 Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology, which uses microorganisms to transform
chemical energy of organic compounds into electricity is considered a promising
alternative.
 It is estimated that domestic waste-water contains 9.3 times more energy than the
treatment consumes.
 The fuel cell offers the possibility of direct conversion of the energy in organic
matter into electricity with the potential of a much-simplified process and higher
conversion efficiency.

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MICROBIAL FUEL CELL
 A Bio-electrochemical device that harnesses the power of respiring microbes to
convert organic matter in waste-water directly into electrical energy.
 The process behind MFCs is cellular respiration.
 The temperature can range between 15 and 45°C.
 Neutral pH working conditions.
 Utilization of complex biomass (often different types of waste or effluent) as
anodic substrate.

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OBJECTIVES
Study microbial fuel cell in details to suggest-
 Proper working mechanism
 Construction framework of MFC
 Substrate and Microorganism used in MFC.
 Capabilities of MFC in water treatment.

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NEED
 Need of sustainable solution.
 According to “The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977,
amended 2003”, polluting industries and big apartments are mandated to treat the
wastewater they generate.
 Waste-water treatment remains an economic burden to industries and the public
 The use of MFC is considered as a reliable, clean, efficient process, which utilizes
renewable methods and does not generate any toxic by-product

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S.N JOURNAL TITLE PUBLICATION
YEAR
AUTHORS REMARKS
1 Microbial Fuel Cell- An Option For
Wastewater Treatment
EEMJ
2010 Narcis Mihai, Duteanu
Makarand, Madhao
Ghanrekar, Benamin Erable
and Keith Scott
Suggests that it can be cost effective and a better
alternate
Full scale implementation is not straight forward
Many more improvements are necessary
2 A review of the substrates used in
microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for sustainable
energy production
Elsevier trans. Bioresource
Technology
2010 Deepak Pant, Gilbert Van
Bogaert, Ludo Diels and
Karolien Vanbroekhoven,
A large number of substrates have been
explored as feed. The major substrates that have
been tried include various kinds of artificial and
real wastewaters and lignocellulosic biomass
3 An experimental study of microbial fuel
cell for electricity generation.
JSBS (JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE
BIOENERGY SYSTEMS)
2013 Jessica li Experiment were done to draw the results based
on different substrates.
Performance characterization were drawn on the
basis of experiments.
4 Wastewater Treatment In Microbial Fuel
Cells
Journal of Cleaner Production
2015 Veera Gnaneswar Gude Shows the possible applications of MFC in waste
water treatment. Scenario of treatment in India
with respect to MFC.
5 Microbial fuel cell as a new technology for
bioelectricity generation
Alexandria Engineering Journal
2015 Mostafa Rahimnejad, Arash
Adhami, Soheil Darvari,
Alireza Zirepour, Sang-eun-oh
It shows the scope of using such technology.
Talks about advantages and disadvantages.
Key factors affecting the efficiency of MFC
LITERATURE STUDY

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S.N JOURNAL TITLE PUBLICATION
YEAR
AUTHORS REMARKS
6 Microbial Fuel Cell
Biochemical Engineering and
Biotechnology - ELSEVIER
2017 Ghasem Najafpour Gives the details about the process involved
Construction of MFC. Focuses on the distribution
of research works on MFC across the glob.
7 Comparative Evaluation Of Waste Water
Treatment Using Microbial Fuel Cell
Trans. Bioresource-Bioprocess -
SPRINGER
2017 Yusuke Asai,
Morio Miyahara,
Atsushi Kouzuma and
Kazuya Watanable
Cod removal , sludge reduction, organic removals
and electricity production are the field to work on.
MFC can sustainably able to save energy needed
for treatment.
8 Microbial fuel cell- methodology and
technology
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
2017 Bruce e . Logan, Bert
Hamelers
This work shows the mechanism involved in the
working of MFC.
The work process flow and its efficiency.
9 Microbial fuel cells: From fundamentals
to applications. A review.
Journal of Power Sources
2017 Carlo Santoro, Catia
Arbizzani, Benjamin Erable
and Ioannis Ieropoulos
Several aspects of the technology are considered.
The development of the concept of microbial fuel
cell into a wider range of derivative technologies,
called bio electrochemical systems.
10 Membrane less Microbial Fuel Cell:
Characterization of Electrogenic Bacteria
and Kinetic Growth Model
Journal of Environmental
Engineering
2019 Muaz Mohd Zaini Makhtar
and Vel Murugan Vadivelu
The EB acted as a biocatalyst to enhance the
degradation of chemical oxygen demand (COD).
Phylogenetic analysis proved the presence of
Pseudomonas species and Bacillus subtilis, which
actively boosted the electron transfer, in the
biofilm.

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APPLICATIONS
 Waste Water Treatment
 Power Generations
 Biosensor
 Methane Production i.e. Electrohydrogenesis
 Carbon Capture Cells i.e. Electromethanogenesis
 Agro And Food Industries

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ADVANTAGES
 Production of low-cost electricity from waste materials.
 The electricity will be produced all-round the year since waste and xenobiotics are
readily available.
 People would be able to produce electricity in their homes.
 This technology will be helpful for the people living in poor countries such as Africa
where huge infrastructure required for set of energy production plants is not
available.
 MFC will lead to clean up of wastes and xenobiotics. So, it can be used as an
alternate method for bioremediation.

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DESIGN OVERVIEW
Consist of basic parts like-
 ANODE
 CATHODE
 Cation specific membrane

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TYPES OF MFCs
 Single chambered and Dual chambered
 The MFC containing separate cathodic and anodic chambers is called dual-
chambered MFC
 Whereas, the one which contains both cathode and anode in a single chamber is
single-chambered MFC

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CONSTRUCTION
SINGLE CHAMBERED CELL
 Uses an external air cathode which is
separated from the inside of the cell by the
membrane
 The air cathode version gives a
higher power density

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DOUBLE CHAMBERED CELL
 Containing the anode and cathode, separated by a
permeable membrane.
 The anode cell contains the substrate
(wastewater or organic material)
 Anode, which is coated with a surface film of
microorganisms.

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SUBSTRATE USED IN MFC
The substrates influence MFC performance including the power density (PD) and
Coulombic efficiency.
Commonly used substrates are:
 Carbohydrates such as Glucose, Fructose, Xylose, Sucrose, Maltose and Trehalose.
 Organic acids such as Acetate, Propionate, Butyrate, Lactate, Succinate and Malate.
 Alcohols such as Ethanol and Methanol
 Inorganic compounds such as Sulphate

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MICROORGANISM USED IN MFC
 Microbial fuel cells use electrochemically active bacteria to transfer electrons to
the electrode.
 Among the electrochemically active bacteria are Shewanella putrefaciens,
Aeromonas Hydrophila.
 Mixed cultures or microbial consortia have been shown to be robust and more
productive than pure strains.

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WORKING MECHANISM
 The process behind MFCs is cellular respiration
 Microbes at the anode oxidize the organic substrate, generating protons
 These protons pass through the membrane to the cathode, and
 Electrons which pass through the anode to an external circuit generate a current
 An example using acetate as the substrate follows:
Anode: CH3COOH + 2H2O → 2CO2 + 8e– + 8H+
Cathode: 2O2 + 8e– + 8H+ → 4H2O
Overall: CH3COOH + 2O2 →2CO2 + 2H2O + Electricity

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Mechanisms involved in electron transfer:
(A) Indirect transfer via mediators or fermentation products
(B) direct transfer via cytochrome proteins.
(C) direct transfer via conductive pili.

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CAPABILITIES OF MFC IN WATER TREATMENT
 All types of waste-water containing organic matter can be treated by this process,
including domestic waste-water, brewery effluent, and much else
 In addition to the use of organic substances, MFCs are used for the treatment of
inorganic wastes.
 Sulfide is one of the most prevalent and hazardous ions and is found in
wastewater. Sulfide can be oxidized in MFCs by different species of sulfur-oxidizing
bacteria.
 Up to 90% of the COD can be removed in some cases and a coulombic efficiency as
high as 80% has been reported.

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Complex substrates below are oxidized by different group of microorganisms and
cause generation of electricity efficiently:
 Hexavalent chromium
Chromium is widely used in number of industrial applications such as leather tanning,
metallurgy, electroplating, and as a wood preservatives.
 Agro wastes
The waste material arising from various agricultural operations such as farming,
poultry processing industries, slaughter houses, and Agro industries is collectively
termed as Agro wastes. It is rich in COD
 Nitrate
The presence of nitrate in water is increasing tremendously due to excessive use of
nitrate-based fertilizers and through animal waste

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BIOELECTRICITY GENERATION
 Microbes metabolize organic compounds.
 The metabolism of these organic compounds generates electrons and protons.
 Electrons are then transferred to the anode surface.
 From anode, the electrons move to cathode through electrical circuit.
 Protons migrate through electrolyte.
 Electrons and protons are consumed in the cathode by reduction of soluble electron
acceptor. Such as oxygen or hexacynoferrate and acidic permanganate.
 Electrical power is harnessed by placing a load between the two electrode
compartments.

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Bioelectricity generation process flow

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POWER OUTPUT
The output of MFC depends upon a number of parameters such as:
 Configuration
 Type of substrate
 Its concentration
 Microorganism used
 Catalyst
 Materials used in cathode and anode
 Suitable membrane

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Power output may be expressed in several ways:
 (A/m2) of anode electrode surface area.
 Area power density (W/m2) of anode electrode surface area.
 Volume power density (W/m3) of cell volume.
A novel MFC-membrane bioreactor (MBR) for the treatment of wastewater has
recently been reported to achieve a maximum power density of 60 W/m3 with the
average current of 1.9 ± 0.4 mA

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CHALLENGES
 Relatively Low Energy Production
 High Initially Cost
 Activation Losses

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FACTORS AFFECTING MFC PERFORMANCE
 TEMPERATURE
 IONIC STRENGTH
 CATHODE MATERIAL
 ELECTRODE SPACING

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CONCLUSION
 MFC is a state-of-the-art technology for production of electricity from metabolism
of microorganisms.
 Microbial fuel cells can harvest electricity from electrode-reducing organisms that
donate electrons to the anode.
 While the microorganism oxidizes organic compounds or substrates into carbon
dioxide, the electrons are transferred to the anode.
 The best microorganism for producing an electric current is Sporomusa ovata,
which is an anaerobic, Gram-negative bacterium that converts hydrogen and
carbon dioxide to acetate by fermentation.

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 The use of microbial fuel cells is still not optimized, and the level of electric current
generated by such systems is low, but the potential for such systems is great.
 The success of specific MFC applications in wastewater treatment will depend on:
– the concentration and biodegradability of the organic matter in the influent.
– The wastewater temperature, and the absence of toxic chemicals.
 Materials costs will be a large factor in the total reactor costs.

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FUTURE PROSPECTS
 MFC is a promising technology for generation of electricity from organic
substances, especially from organic waste of different origin.
 Many reports have confirmed that rather than pure cultures, consortium of many
bacteria show improved electron transfer rates to the anode.
 Many bacterial strains have been shown to produce mediators which efficiently
transfer electrons to the anode. Identification of new mediators can also increase
the performance of MFC technology.
 However, it is still a challenge for MFC researchers to construct large-scale MFCs
that have both high-power production and stable performance.

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 The technologies like, use of air cathodes, stacked reactors and cloth electrode
assemblies are promising future in MFCs.
 Among these, the use of air cathodes is very effective since it helps in efficient use
of oxygen from air and avoids the need for aerating the water or using chemical
catholytes such as ferricyanide that must be regenerated.

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DISTRIBUTION PF WORKS RELATED TO MFC ACROSS
GLOBE

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REFERENCES
[1] Carlo Santoro, Catia Arbizzani, Benjamin Erable and Ioannis Ieropoulos, “Microbial fuel cells: From fundamentals to applications. A
review,” in Journal of Power Sources, ISSN: 0378-7753, Vol. 356, pp. 225-244, 2017.
[2] Bruce E. Logan, Reneä Rozendal, Uwe Schroder, Jurg Keller, Stefano Freguia, Peter Aelterman, Korneel Rabaey and Bert
Hamelers, “Microbial Fuel Cells: Methodology and Technology,” in Environmental Science and Technology, ISSN: 1520-5851, Vol.
40, pp. 5181-5192, 2006.
[3] Narcis Duteanu, Makarand Ghangrekar, Benjamin Erable and Keith Scott, “Microbial Fuel Cells - An option for wastewater
treatment,” in Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, ISSN: 1069-1087, Vol. 9, 2010.
[4] Deepak Pant, Gilbert Van Bogaert, Ludo Diels and Karolien Vanbroekhoven, “A review of the substrates used in microbial fuel cells
(MFCs) for sustainable energy production,” in Elsevier trans. Bioresource Technology, ISSN 0960-8524, Vol. 101, March 2010, pp.
1533-1543.
[5] Hai-Liang Song, Ying Zhu, Jie Li, “Electron transfer mechanisms, characteristics and applications of biological cathode microbial
fuel cells – A mini review,” in Arabian Journal of Chemistry, ISSN: 1878-5352, Vol. 12, pp. 2236-2243, 2019.
[6] Najafpour, Ghasem, “Microbial Fuel Cells,” in book Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology published by Elsevier, Vol. 10, pp.
560-567, 2015.
[7] Yusuke Asai, Morio Miyahara, Atsushi Kouzuma and Kazuya Watanabe, “Comparative evaluation of wastewater-treatment microbial
fuel cells in terms of organics removal, waste-sludge production, and electricity generation,” in Springer open trans. Bioresour.
Bioprocess, Vol. 4, 2017.
[8] Veera Gnaneswar Gude, “Wastewater treatment in microbial fuel cells – an overview,” in Journal of Cleaner Production,
ISSN: 0959-6526, Vol. 122, pp. 287-307, 2016.

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[9] Venkatesh Chaturvedi and Pradeep Verma, “Microbial fuel cell: a green approach for the utilization of waste for the generation of
bioelectricity,” in Elsevier trans. Bioresource and Bioprocess, Vol. 3, 2016.
[10] Robin M. Allen & H. Peter Bennetto, “Microbial fuel-cells,” article in Biochem-Biotechnol, Vol. 39, pp. 27–40, 1993.
[11] Jessica Li., “An Experimental Study of Microbial Fuel Cells for Electricity Generating: Performance Characterization and Capacity
Improvement,” in Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems, ISSN: 2165-4018, Vol. 3, pp. 171-178, 2013.
[12] Mostafa Rahimnejad, Arash Adhami, Soheil Darvari, Alireza Zirehpour and Sang-Eun Oh, “Microbial fuel cell as new technology for
bioelectricity generation: A review,” in Alexandria Engineering Journal, ISSN: 1110-0168, Vol. 88, 2015.
[13] Muaz Mohd Zaini Makhtar and Vel Murugan Vadivelu, “Membraneless Microbial Fuel Cell: Characterization of Electrogenic
Bacteria and Kinetic Growth Model,” in Journal of Environmental Engineering, ISSN: 1943-7870, Vol. 145, 2019.
[14] Swades K Chaudhuri and Derek R Lovley, “Electricity generation by direct oxidation of glucose in mediatorless microbial fuel
cells,” in article Biotechnol, pp. 1229-1232, 2003.
[15] A. G. Capodaglio, D. Molognoni, E. Dallago, A. Liberal, R. Cella, P. Longoni, and L. Pantaleoni, “Microbial Fuel Cells for Direct
Electrical Energy Recovery from Urban Wastewaters,” article in The Scientific World Journal, Article ID 634738, Vol. 2013,
2013.
[16] Government Regulations for Effluents, in IS: 6582‐1971, Bureau of Indian Standards, revised version 2003.
[17] Annual Progress Report (APR) 2017-2018, ENVIS Centre on Control of Pollution Water, Air and Noise, 2018.
[18] Annual Progress Report (APR) 2018-2019, ENVIS Centre on Control of Pollution Water, Air and Noise, 2019.
[19] Overview of Water supply and sewerage System, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), 2019.

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