Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Mediated Food Waste Remediation with Simultaneous Bioelectricity Generation

A single chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) was designed and fabricated for the production of bioenergy generation with simultaneous composite food waste remediation. The MFC demonstrated maximum open circuit potential of 402 mV on 14th day of operation and followed decreasing trend till the end of operation. Experimental data depicted that provision of solid electrode material facilitated favorable conditions for higher substrate degradation/hydrolysis by enhancing electrochemically active bacterial metabolic activities. However, accumulation of intermediate metabolites showed adverse effect on the overall process by lowering the system pH conditions. MFC also documented good substrate removal efficiency with simultaneous bioelectricity generation. Experimental results demonstrated that solid-state anaerobic fermentation process can be efficiently combined in MFC for the bioelectricity generation with concurrent food waste remediation.