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Simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell

Since the last decade, sustainable energy production and wastewater treatment are of top priority topics in the developing country such as Malaysia. Malaysia is a country that depends on natural gases and fossil fuels as energy sources which are all non-renewable energy sources. Besides, Palm oil mi...

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Main Author: Lim, Jia Han
Format: Undergraduates Project Papers
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
TP Chemical technology
Online Access:http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/9153/1/cd8560.pdf
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/9153/
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spelling my.ump.umpir.91532021-07-27T04:07:08Z http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/9153/ Simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell Lim, Jia Han TP Chemical technology Since the last decade, sustainable energy production and wastewater treatment are of top priority topics in the developing country such as Malaysia. Malaysia is a country that depends on natural gases and fossil fuels as energy sources which are all non-renewable energy sources. Besides, Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a major wastewater generated in Malaysia during the production of palm oil products. It is highly polluting due to the high content of chemical oxygen demand (COD). Therefore, in order to produce energy and perform wastewater treatment simultaneously, biological wastewater treatment that used microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a promising technology. In this study, simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber MFC was carried out. A non-precious catalyst α-MnO2 was synthesized to be used for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the air cathode of the MFC in order to replace the commonly used precious catalyst, platinum (Pt.). The α-MnO2 was synthesised from KMnO4 in H2SO4 solution. It was characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis in order to examine its crystal structure, morphology, chemical composition and also its electrochemical activity in ORR. The XRD results confirmed the formation of α-MnO2 phase. The ORR activity from CV analysis indicated that the catalyst could be suitable for air cathode MFC. The air cathode single chamber MFC was set up with a 25mL anodic working volume in order to treat POME. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was used as the binder for the catalyst to replace the commonly used Nafion solution. Besides, Polyacrylonitrile carbon felt (PACF) was used as electrode for the MFC system. Different catalyst loadings ranging from 0.10 to 0.20g were coated on the projected area of air cathode which is 7.07cm2 in order to study the effect of catalyst loading on the performance of the MFC based on the power generation and COD removal efficiency from POME. The result obtained showed that the power generation increased with the increase in catalyst loading. The results indicate that the ORR is still the limiting factor for the overall performance of the air cathode MFC. The maximum power density generated was 671.98mW/m3 and the highest COD removal efficiency was 21.7% when the catalyst loading was 0.20g on the projected area of air cathode. The α-MnO2 prepared from this study shows great potential to replace the conventional Pt catalyst in cathode. 2014-01 Undergraduates Project Papers NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/9153/1/cd8560.pdf Lim, Jia Han (2014) Simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell. Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang.
institution Universiti Malaysia Pahang
building UMP Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Pahang
content_source UMP Institutional Repository
url_provider http://umpir.ump.edu.my/
language English
topic TP Chemical technology
spellingShingle TP Chemical technology
Lim, Jia Han
Simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell
description Since the last decade, sustainable energy production and wastewater treatment are of top priority topics in the developing country such as Malaysia. Malaysia is a country that depends on natural gases and fossil fuels as energy sources which are all non-renewable energy sources. Besides, Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a major wastewater generated in Malaysia during the production of palm oil products. It is highly polluting due to the high content of chemical oxygen demand (COD). Therefore, in order to produce energy and perform wastewater treatment simultaneously, biological wastewater treatment that used microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a promising technology. In this study, simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber MFC was carried out. A non-precious catalyst α-MnO2 was synthesized to be used for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the air cathode of the MFC in order to replace the commonly used precious catalyst, platinum (Pt.). The α-MnO2 was synthesised from KMnO4 in H2SO4 solution. It was characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis in order to examine its crystal structure, morphology, chemical composition and also its electrochemical activity in ORR. The XRD results confirmed the formation of α-MnO2 phase. The ORR activity from CV analysis indicated that the catalyst could be suitable for air cathode MFC. The air cathode single chamber MFC was set up with a 25mL anodic working volume in order to treat POME. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was used as the binder for the catalyst to replace the commonly used Nafion solution. Besides, Polyacrylonitrile carbon felt (PACF) was used as electrode for the MFC system. Different catalyst loadings ranging from 0.10 to 0.20g were coated on the projected area of air cathode which is 7.07cm2 in order to study the effect of catalyst loading on the performance of the MFC based on the power generation and COD removal efficiency from POME. The result obtained showed that the power generation increased with the increase in catalyst loading. The results indicate that the ORR is still the limiting factor for the overall performance of the air cathode MFC. The maximum power density generated was 671.98mW/m3 and the highest COD removal efficiency was 21.7% when the catalyst loading was 0.20g on the projected area of air cathode. The α-MnO2 prepared from this study shows great potential to replace the conventional Pt catalyst in cathode.
format Undergraduates Project Papers
author Lim, Jia Han
author_facet Lim, Jia Han
author_sort Lim, Jia Han
title Simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell
title_short Simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell
title_full Simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell
title_fullStr Simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell
title_full_unstemmed Simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell
title_sort simultaneous power generation and wastewater treatment by using air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell
publishDate 2014
url http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/9153/1/cd8560.pdf
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/9153/
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score 13.211869

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