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Bioelectrical evaluation of microbial fuel cell fed with outlet wastewater of the sugar industry in Egypt
  • Mostafa Abdelshafy Ramadan,
  • Mohamed Hemida Abd-Alla,
  • Usama Abdul-Raouf
Mostafa Abdelshafy Ramadan
Al-Azhar University Faculty of Science

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Mohamed Hemida Abd-Alla
Assiut University Faculty of Science
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Usama Abdul-Raouf
Al-Azhar University Faculty of Science
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Abstract

Background: Evaluation of the electricity generated by the single-chamber mediator–less microbial fuel cell (MFC) fed with sugar industry wastewater (SIW), besides the characterization of bacterial diversity of anodic biofilm. Results: The maximum MFC voltage in open circuit (OCV) mode was 911 mV after 24 operational days, while the closed-circuit voltage (CCV) was 360 mV when 550 Ω as the external load applied. From the polarization curve, the maximum power density of 189.16 mW/m2 as power output was observed at a current density of 370.9 mA/m2. The efficiency of the MFC was measured based on coulombic efficiency and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate. While the CE was 51%, the COD removal efficiency reached 90.4%. The anodic biofilm bacterial diversity was observed through several identifying morphologically, microscopy, and molecularly. The anodic biofilm phylogenetic bacterial consortia based on the molecular analysis of 16S rRNA sequences was indicated seven dominant strains: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Lactobacillus sp., Enterococcus sp., Aeromonas hydrophila, Bacillus methanolicus, Geothrix fermentans, and Bacillus thermocloacae with similarity value 100% for each strain. Conclusion: These results proposed that SIW bacterial communities in the anodic biofilm have balanced symbiotic behavior, which has been translated into the bioelectricity production in parallel with the SIW substrate treatment.