A NEW REPORT ON USING A LACCASE PRODUCING YEAST FOR MELANOIDIN DEGRADATION AND ELECTRICITY GENERATION BY MICROBIAL FUEL CELL

Palm oil milled effluent (POME) is one of the most environmental concerned industrial wastewater owing to its complex structure. Melanoidin is a highly stable content in POME that caused the dark color. In this study, the Galactomyces sp. rich consortium TM11 with high laccase activity was used to remove a contaminated melanoidin from raw POME. Besides, the single chamber ceramic microbial fuel cell (sCMFC) was developed to eliminate melanoidin and simultaneously generate electrical power. The results indicated that the maximal current density and power density of 215.56 +/- 5.09 mA/m(2) and 139.44 +/- 6.56 mW/m(2) were reached. Whereas the melanoidin removal of 83.50 +/- 2.93% was obtained. This study was the first reported of using laccase producing yeast comsortium to remove melanoidin and generate electrical power.