The performance of microbial fuel cells treating vegetable oil industrial wastewater

The safe disposal of contaminated water has always remained a global challenge to environmentalists. To rectify wastewater pollution, current treatment technologies are not enough sustainable to meet the ever growing water sanitation needs. However, microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an emerging technology, not only treats wastewater but also generates electric energy. In this study, we investigated the electricity generation by a dual chambered MFC during wastewater treatment of vegetable oil industries from Hattar Industrial Estate Pakistan. The MFC was operated under laboratory conditions at two different temperatures (i.e. 25 and 35 °C). Briefly, anaerobic anode and aerobic cathode chambers were partitioned by a proton exchange membrane in a two-compartment MFC reactor. Phosphate buffer solution with 7 pH and wastewater from vegetable oil industries were used as electrolytes in the anode and cathode cubicles, respectively. A total of 20 wastewater samples were collected from vegetable oil industrial effluents and treated for 72 h in MFC. Results illustrate that the efficiency of MFC was increased with increase in temperature and time. The highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency (80%-90%) and the maximum voltage (5839 mV) were obtained at 35 °C. Furthermore, high Coloumbic Efficiencies (i.e., 33.0 and 36.5%) were observed that ratify the performance of MFCs use the maximum fraction of organic matter to produce current during treatment.