Electricity generation from food and animal wastewaters using microbial fuel cells

It is possible to generate electricity from food processing and animal wastewaters using microbial fuel cells (MFC) to achieve both wastewater treatment and bioenergy production. A food processing wastewater was tested for electricity production in a two-chambered MFC. Preliminary tests demonstrated a maximum of 81 ± 7 mw/sq m (normalized to the anode surface area) using a high COD food processing wastewater (initial SCOD = 595 mg/L was diluted 10 times) with the treated wastewater reduced to a final COD of < 30 mg/L (95% COD removal). Using a one-chambered MFC and a pre-fermented wastewater, the maximum power was 371 ± 10 mw/sq m (150 ohm resistor). For the swine wastewater, the maximum power density was 261 mw/sq m (Voltage = 191 mv with 200 ohm resistor) with current density of 1.4 A/sq m. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 230th ACS National Meeting (Washington, DC 8/28/2005-9/1/2005).