Investigation on the performance of innovative powdered activated carbon hybrid microbial fuel cell in treating palm oil mill effluent

Abstract

Performance of nine 0.5L microbial fuel cells (MFCs) with and without powdered activated carbon (PAC) and cultivated at different sludge retention times (SRTs) with different feed concentrations were studied and compared for their effects on wastewater treatment, biogas and power productions. The best MFC could remove the chemically oxygen demand (COD) from the palm oil mill effluent (POME) up to 64.4%. This study also showed that biogas could be better produced by the MFCs which were fed with relatively higher feed concentration compared to the MFCs fed with relatively lower feed concentration. However, it was found that the power production for the MFCs fed with relatively lower feed concentration had better power density production compared to the MFCs fed with the relatively higher feed concentration. In addition, all the MFCs cultivated at longer SRTs with PAC could perform better in terms of biogas production, COD removal rate and power production.