PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SINGLE-CHAMBER MICROBIAL FUEL CELL WITH VARIATION OF EXTERNAL RESISTANCE

摘要

Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is a technology developed to obtain new sources of renewable energy. However, because MFC is quite expensive, many studies have focused on determining ways to make this technology more efficient, economical and sustainable.Previous studies have examined dual-chamber MFC using tempeh waste water as the substrate. However, dual-chamber MFC was ineffective and inefficient because the membrane used in these studies was not compatible enough with the waste water. Therefore, this study developed a single reactor design called the Single-Chamber Microbial Fuel Cell. This study focused on evaluating the performance of a single-chamber MFC using model tempeh waste water as the inoculum and the substrate for the start-up stage. Model tempeh waste water was also used as the source of inoculum with glucose as a single substrate. Central interests of the study include the kinetics and efficiency of MFC, which consists of Coulombic Efficiency and Energy Efficiency on the external resistance variations. Experimental data was successfully modeled by the Monod Kinetics equation, with the kinetic constant PMax 0.033 mW/m2 and 0.021 mW/m2 and a Ks value of 124 mg/L and 64 mg/L for external resistances 100 and 1000 Ohm, respectively. The highest value of Coulombic Efficiency was obtained at 100 Ohm resistance, amounting to 9.50% for the start-up and 0.39% with glucose as the single substrate. The maximum Energy Efficiency value was 0.001% at 100 Ohm resistance.