Optimization of double chamber microbial fuel cell for domestic wastewater treatment and electricity production

Microbial fuel cells(M FCs)represent a new approach for treating w aste w ater along w ith electricity production.The present study addressed electricity production from domestic w astew ater using a mediator-less double chamber M FC.The electricity production w as monitored under different operational conditions for both summer and w inter samples.Optimization of the anodic and cathodic chambers resulted in a maximal current of 0.784 and 0.645 m A w ith the maximal pow er intensity of 209 and 117 m W/m2in pow er duration of 24 h for the summer and w inter samples,respectively.Scanning electron microscopy show ed that the bacterial biofilm formation on the anode w as denser for the summer sample than that w hen the w inter sample w as used,so w as the total bacterial count.Therefore,samples taken during summer w ere considered better in electricity production and w aste w ater treatment than those taken during w inter basically because of the high microbial load during the hot season.In parallel,there w as a decrease in both biological oxygen demand(BOD5)and chemical oxygen demand(COD)values which reached 71.8%and 72.85%,respectively at the end of the operation process for the summer sample,w hile there w as no evident decrease for the w inter sample.Optimizing the operating conditions not only increased the potential of using domestic w aste w ater in microbial fuel cells to produce electricity,but also improved the quality of the domestic w aste w ater.