Bio-assisted treatment of hazardous spent wash via microbial fuel cell. Environmental friendly approach

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been utilized for energy generation and wastewater treatment since many decades. Due to the better performance of MFC concerning energy generation and wastewater treatment, the current study was conducted. The aim of current study is to utilize spent wash as anode feed along with impact of various parameters on treatment as well as energy production. Saccharomyces cerevisiae sp. was utilized as biocatalyst while 180 μmol l−1 of methylene blue as a mediator in anode and 350 μmol l−1 potassium ferricyanide was used as an oxidizing agent in cathode chamber for treatment of spent wash. All experiments were carried out through balancing the volume of 1 l for power generation from spent wash in MFC under an optimized parameter of 10% agarose, pH 8, aeration rate 200 ml/min, and 50% substrate concentration. The maximum current and a power density obtained at an optimized concentration are approximately 54.21 mA/m2 and 71.12 mW/m2, respectively. The maximum voltage of 830mV (3.3 mA) was obtained per liter of processed spent wash. The removal of COD and BOD from effluent MFC was 94% remarkably. These results demonstrate that MFC can simultaneously generate electricity and remove COD effectively from spent wash.