Preliminary studies on power generation by Bacilli E1 using dual chamber microbial fuel cell

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a developed technology to utilize microbial degradation ability and turned the degradation products to electricity. One of the limiting factor that contributes to the performance level of MFC is the microorganism used in the MFC. In the present research, Bacilli E1 has been tested for its ability to utilize glucose and converted it to electricity in dual chamber MFC. The MFC operated using E1 produced a maximum average of open circuit voltage (OCV) of 0.8 V. Meanwhile, by inserting a 1000 Ω resistance in the MFC circuit, produced a stable voltage of 0.1 V and calculated current and power were 0.2 ± 0.017 mA and 0.1 Wm-2 Comparison of glucose based voltage production between individual and mixed culture shows similar pattern of voltage profile and since individual CC did not show any significant increase of OCV, it was concluded that Bacilli E1 plays major role in the present MFC for power production.