Bioenergy production from freeze dried chlorella vulgaris biomass via microbial fuel cell

Zainal, Muhammad Haikal; Mohamad, Sharifah Aminah Syed; Kudin, Tunku Ishak Tunku; Ameran, Hazlini Mohmad; Kamalruzaman, Nurul Khamsatul Akma; Hassan, Oskar Hasdinor; Ali, Ab Malik Marwan; Yahya, Muhd Zu Azhan

Muhammad Haikal Zainal ¹ , Sharifah Aminah Syed Mohamad ¹ , Tunku Ishak Tunku Kudin ¹ , Hazlini Mohmad Ameran ² , Nurul Khamsatul Akma Kamalruzaman ² , Oskar Hasdinor Hassan ³ , Ab Malik Marwan Ali ⁴ , Muhd Zu Azhan Yahya ⁵

¹Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia
²Centre of Foundation Studies Universiti Teknologi MARA 42300 Kuala Selangor, Malaysia
³Faculty of Art and Design Universiti Teknologi MARA 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia
⁴Institute of Science Universiti Teknologi MARA 42300 Kuala Selangor, Malaysia
⁵Faculty of Science and Defence Technology, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, Kem Sungai Besi, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

J Ther Eng 2016; 6(2): 1029-1033

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Abstract

Algae biomass has strong and complex cell wall structure that is a hindrance for microbial digestion. In this work, two extracted algae biomass, which are freeze dried and spray dried Chlorella vulgaris biomass is applied to investigate the generation of bioelectricity by using single chamber air-cathode Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC). MFC was fed with freeze dried algae powder to produce energy and determine its degradation efficiency. MFC with freeze-dried algae biomass was generating voltage around 739 mV from bacterial metabolism with algae substrate and phosphate buffered medium. Based on the power curve obtained, the maximum power density is 159 mW/m2 with 2.5 g/L of substrate concentration. The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal efficiency is 54.2% and Coulombic efficiency (CE) obtained is 28.4%.

Keywords: Microbial fuel cell, algae, freeze dried