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A strategy for power generation from bilgewater using a photosynthetic microalgal fuel cell (MAFC)

A strategy for power generation from bilgewater using a photosynthetic microalgal fuel cell (MAFC)

Authors :
Saisaban Fahad
Woo Hyoung Lee
Hodon Ryu
Jae-Hoon Hwang
Akihiro Kushima
Kelsey L. Rodriguez
Jorge W. Santo Domingo
Source :
J Power Sources
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Elsevier BV, 2021.

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have recently been applied to generate electricity from oily wastewater. Although MFCs that utilize microalgae to provide a self-supporting oxygen (O(2)) supply at the cathode have been well discussed, those with microalgae at the anode as an active biomass for treating wastewater and producing electrons are still poorly studied and understood. Here, we demonstrated a bilgewater treatment using single- and double-chamber microalgal fuel cells (SMAFC and DMAFC) capable of generating energy with a novel microalgal strain (Chlorella sorokiniana) that was initially isolated from oily wastewater. Compared to previous MFC studies using green algae, relatively high voltage output (151.3–160.1 mV, 71.3–83.4 mV m(−2) of power density) was observed in the SMAFC under O(2) controlled systems (i.e., acetate addition or light/dark cycle). It was assumed that, under the O(2) depletion, alternative electron acceptors such as bicarbonate may be utilized for power generation. A DMAFC showed better power density (up to 23.9%) compared to the SMAFC due to the separated cathode chamber which fully utilizes O(2) as an electron acceptor. Both SMAFC and DMAFC removed 67.2–77.4% of soluble chemical oxygen demands (SCOD) from the synthetic bilgewater. This study demonstrates that the application of algae-based MFCs is a feasible strategy to treat oil-in-water emulsion while generating electricity.

Details

ISSN :
03787753
Volume :
484
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Journal of Power Sources
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....ca6f60e2291ef870fe793fcc84bd813d
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2020.229222