Abstract
M.Tech. (Chemical Engineering)
Microbial fuel cell is the energy harvesting technology being studied; this technology concerns various substrates, microbes and wastewater into electrical energy by the catalytic reaction of micro-organisms. The thesis of the project research seeks to establish a comparison in the performance of biochemical properties for microbial fuel cells using synthetic wastewater and activated carbon. The cathode electrode used was a stainless steel pressed with activated carbon and was sectioned to a surface area of 36cm2 same with the proton exchange membrane and the carbon cloths were also sectioned at 36cm2. The experimental set-up consisted of a double chamber membrane which consisted of the anode and air-cathode chamber. The anode and air-cathode chamber were immersed in the open water bath regulated at a temperature of 35oC. On the start-up, the anode chamber was filled with 280ml of synthetic wastewater which was mixed and prepared in the lab to reach the ideal COD levels which meet the raw domestic wastewater COD levels and the air-cathode was filled with 8L of tap water. The anode chamber after every experiment was changed and fitted with a new and different carbon cloth coating, whereby the cathode chamber had to be changed with an addition of the pulverized activated carbon. The 50% PTFE coated carbon cloth is more efficient in generating power than the other which were compared to in the experiment; however the performance of individual carbon cloths varies significantly with the type or percentage of coating added and this directly affects the overall performance of the MFC, and this was highly aided with the addition of the activated carbon. An air-cathode with activated carbon with different particle sizes which was embedded on a stainless steel mesh. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) containing synthetic wastewater was constructed and compared to different types of carbon coated polytetrafluroethylene (PTFEs). The synthetic wastewater contained in MFCs was investigated and together with the aid of activated carbon which was pulverized to different sizes for oxygen removal. The synthetic wastewater MFC had a power output of 86.80mW/m2, compared to 17.47mW/m2 for the domestic wastewater. The limiting current density is 0.0347mA/m2 for the activated carbon in synthetic wastewater compared to 0.0046mA/m2 for domestic wastewater without an...