Effect of presence of cellulose in the freshwater sediment on the performance of sediment microbial fuel cell

• In situ remediation of aquaculture pond sediment and water was tried using SMFC.
• Effective reduction of COD and nitrogen from water occurred in presence of SMFC.
• Up to 2% addition of cellulose the performance of SMFC improved.
• At higher cellulose concentration, performance of SMFC decreased.
• This decrease in performance is attributed to the higher acetic acid accumulation.

The performance of sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) was evaluated in the presence of cellulose in the aquaculture pond sediment as 2% (w/w) in SMFC-2, 4% in SMFC-3 and without adding cellulose in SMFC-1. From aquaculture water, average chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiencies of 80.6 ± 0.3% and 83.0 ± 0.01% were obtained in SMFC-1, 88.2 ± 0.5% and 89.6 ± 0.8% in SMFC-2 and 83.1 ± 0.3% and 64.5 ± 1.6% in SMFC-3, respectively. During the complete experimental period, acetic acid was the only short chain fatty acid detected in all three SMFCs. Sediment organic matter removal in SMFC-1, SMFC-2 and SMFC-3 were 16%, 22% and 18.6%, respectively. SMFCs demonstrated effective cellulose degradation from aquaculture pond sediment and maintained the oxidized sediment top layer favourable for aquaculture.