international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

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Processing of electroplating industry wastewater

through dual chambered microbial fuel cells (MFC)
for simultaneous treatment of wastewater and
green fuel production

Tamilarasan Karuppiah a, Ushani Uthirakrishnan b,

Shri Vigneshwar Sivakumar c, Swetha Authilingam d, Jayaseelan Arun d,
Ramachandran Sivaramakrishnan e, Arivalagan Pugazhendhi f,g,*
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology,
Avadi, 600 062, Tamil Nadu, India
b
Department of Biotechnology, Karpaga Vinayaga College of Engineering and Technology, Chinnakolambakkam,
Chengalpattu, 603308, Tamil Nadu, India
c
Department of Chemical Engineering, Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, Kalavakkam, 603 110,
Tamil Nadu, India
d
Centre for Waste Management-‘International Research Centre’, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology,
OMR, Chennai, 600 119, Tamil Nadu, India
e
Laboratory of Cyanobacterial Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand
f
School of Renewable Energy, Maejo University, Chiang Mai 50290, Thailand
g
College of Medical and Health Science, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan

highlights graphical abstract

Dual chambered microbial fuel cell

treated a real wastewater with
total chemical oxygen demand of
2500 mg/L.

Total and soluble chemical oxygen
demand of electroplating indus-
trial wastewater were reduced of
87% and 79% respectively.

The maximum power density ob-
tained was 260 mW/m2 and
2
364 mA/m respectively.

Microbial fuel cell technology deals
a green alternative for the produc-
tion of low-cost energy.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: pugal.smile@gmail.com, arivalagan.pugazhendhi@tdtu.edu.vn (A. Pugazhendhi).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.034
0360-3199/© 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Karuppiah T et al., Processing of electroplating industry wastewater through dual chambered microbial fuel
cells (MFC) for simultaneous treatment of wastewater and green fuel production, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.034
2 international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

article info abstract

Article history: Microbial fuel cells (MFC) provide a breakthrough development for wastewater treatment
Received 19 April 2021 combined with electricity production. Though, MFC applications are restricted in labora-
Received in revised form tory scale level. Present study an effort has been made to employ the electroplating in-
26 May 2021 dustrial wastewater as feedstock in dual chambered anaerobic microbial fuel cell for
Accepted 6 June 2021 organic content removal as well as energy production. The ultimate goal of this research is
Available online xxx to analyze the effect of organic load (OL) on removal of organic matter and power pro-
duction. The maximum removal efficiency of total, soluble oxygen demands (TCOD, SCOD)
Keywords: and total suspended solids (TSS) of about 87%, 79% and 72% respectively was obtained at
Microbial fuel cells the OL of 1.5 gCOD/L. The maximum power and current density of about 260 mW/m2
Fed-batch mode dual-chamber (6.2 W/m3) and 364 mA/m2 was also recorded at a same OL of 1.5 gCOD/L. From the above
Wastewater treatment findings proposed that utilization of high strength organic wastewater in MFC could pave
Electroplating the way to handle the problem of electroplating industries as well as minimize a small
Energy demand portion of energy demand.
© 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

far on the use of electroplating industry wastewater as sub-

Introduction
The electroplating industry was one among the critical pollu-
tion industry in India has been classified under red category [1].
One of the major problems emerging from the electroplating
industry that discharges heavy metals (cadmium, chromium
and nickel) and toxic substances into the water bodies through
their effluents [2]. Particularly, chromium causes a dangerous
effect to living and non-living organisms. Hexavalent chro-
mium mostly occurs as soluble compounds and toxic chro-
mate anions and which is undergoes carcinogen effects [3]. In
addition to this, they also cause air contamination and toxic
solid waste production. Furthermore, there are no effective
and cost-efficient techniques for treating this wastewater
before being let into the water bodies. Henceforth, these
wastewaters after being mixed with water bodies affect the
aquatic eco-system, animals, and humans to a greater extent.
These electroplating industries are not able to upgrade their
technology to produce products in a greener way as the ma-
jority of them are small-scale industries [4].
Around 1.5 MLD of wastewater was generated from various
electroplating industries. Generally, the effluents released
from the industry has several components mixed, some of
which may be toxic or may cause damage to the environment
in some way or the other. Hence the release of this wastewater
into the surrounding is a serious issue to be addressed. To
tackle this difficulty several advance cost-efficient treatments
are available to treat the toxic effluents properly and release it
to the surroundings without contributing any damage. But the
focus in recent times is on the energy consumption it does to
treat the wastewater properly. Depleting fossil fuel resources,
emerging greenhouse gas concentration, pollution, etc. are
the reason to look for a better way to reduce the side effects
that are made in the environment. One of the efficient ways of
treating this wastewater is by utilizing it for the MFC. By doing
so, we have two advantages viz. the wastewater is treated to
attain its optimum characteristics, and power is obtained
from it through the MFC. No study has been documented so
strate in MFC. Moreover, the electroplating industry effluent is
organically rich (COD - 2500 mg/L) to be utilized as a substrate
for energy generation in MFC. Though the electroplating in-
dustry wastewater was acidic in nature, its pH was adjusted to
neutral (pH - 7) before introducing into the anode chamber of
the dual chambered MFC. Henceforth the pH of the electro-
plating wastewater might not have affected the bacterial
species in the inoculum, biofilm formation ability and subse-
quent power production.
Microbial fuel cells (MFC) is a reliable alternative source of
green energy, as it undergoes energy from waste concept. The
concept of MFC is to generate electricity from the compounds
that are present in the wastewater released by the industries.
Biochemical system was used to oxidize the organic com-
pounds present in the wastewater to produce electricity [5].
This technology of producing electricity by chemical reduction
and catalytic oxidation of the compounds present in the
wastewater is emerging recently as it handles both the waste-
water treatment by reducing toxic elements and behaves as a
better alternative for energy production [6]. However, in spite of
the process performance, their wider application is reduced
due to high energy demands, and other factors like chemical
consumption and post treatment complications. As a matter of
fact, these microbial fuel cells are also used to produce fuel like
hydrogen gas. The key part of MFC is the usage of microbes to
convert organic and inorganic compounds present in the water
by oxidation. The substrate used in MFC undergoes degradation
to produce electrons and protons. The electron thus produced
travels via the external circuit, while the protons come in
contact with oxygen by surpassing separators like proton ex-
change membrane (PEM) and forms a water molecule.
Compared to air cathode MFC which employs expensive cata-
lyst (Pt) and coatings, dual chambered MFC has the advantage
of using only PEM (Nafion) which is less expensive than Pt.
Since anode chamber is situated nearer to the cathode cham-
ber, the oxygen diffusion into the chamber is comparatively
less when compared to upflow MFC configuration [3]. The
characteristic parameters which are used to estimate the

Please cite this article as: Karuppiah T et al., Processing of electroplating industry wastewater through dual chambered microbial fuel
cells (MFC) for simultaneous treatment of wastewater and green fuel production, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.034
 international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx
performance of MFC are migration of electron and proton,
proper reduction of electron acceptors, and catabolism of
microbe. Practical application of MFC is carried out in dairy
industry wastewater [7], alcohol distillery wastewater [8], sur-
gical cotton industry wastewater [9] and seafood processing
wastewater [10]. Also, studies have reported the treatment of
dye industry wastewater with MFC containing carbon as an
electrode [11].
This study was put forward to fill the research gap in pro-
cessing electroplating wastewater treatment via interlinked
green energy production by microbial fuel cells. In this study,
the electroplating industry wastewater was experimented
through a fed-batch mode dual-chamber MFC. Effect of
organic load on maximum power generation by the fed-batch
mode dual-chamber MFC was experimented and reported.
Materials and methodology
Initial waste water characterization
The electroplating industry's wastewater was collected from
PRT Enterprises at Athipet, Ambattur Industrial Estate,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Thus obtained wastewater was
stored at 4  C and was characterized for its physico-chemical
characteristics such as pH, total solids (mg/L), total dissolved
solids (mg/L), total suspended solids (mg/L), chemical oxygen
demand (mg/L), biological oxygen demand (mg/L), chloride
(mg/L), sulfates (mg/L), and total alkalinity (mg/L) using
standard methods as mentioned in APHA [12]. The charac-
teristics of the electroplating industry wastewater are
depicted in Table 1.
Microbial fuel cell setup and operations
In the present study, continuous mode MFC has been used
with an anode compartment of volume 500 mL and a cathode
compartment of volume 600 mL. The corresponding diameter,
breadth, and length of the compartments are 6 cm, 7 cm, and
112 cm respectively. The anode chamber consists of a circuit
connection, inlet, and outlet. The electrode is positioned inside
the chamber. The electroplating industrywastewater obtained
from Ambattur Industrial Estate was filled at the bottom of the
anode chamber. Initially, the mixed liquor suspended solids
concentration was reduced to 6000 mg//L. The electroplating
industry wastewater along with the inoculum (waste activated
Table 1 e Initial characteristics of electroplating industry
wastewater (triplicate measurements).
Parameter Values
pH 5.3
Total solids (mg/L) 10,800 ± 100
Total dissolved solids (mg/L) 6500 ± 80
Total suspended solids (mg/L) 3800 ± 60
Chemical oxygen demand (mg/L) 2500 ± 60
Biochemical oxygen demand (mg/L) 1600 ± 60
Chloride (mg/L) 2100 ± 50
Sulphates (mg/L) 1450 ± 50
Total alkalinity (mg/L) 900 ± 20
Please cite this article as: Karuppiah T et al., Processing of electroplating industry wastewater through dual chambered microbial fuel
cells (MFC) for simultaneous treatment of wastewater and green fuel production, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.034
3
sludge) was continuously fed gradually into the anode cham-
ber using peristaltic pump and maintained under anaerobic
condition. The performance of MFC was analyzed over a period
of 110 days at room temperature (27 ± 3  C). The anode
chamber was further filled with 250 mL of sludge and waste-
water was added up to the brim. In this study, the period of the
acclimatization phase is 15 days (Fig. 1). Concerned with the
acclimatization of the inoculum to the wastewater, normally it
is able to utilize the substrate for current generation within
24e72 h. Though the inoculum was acclimatized with the
electroplating industry wastewater (pH adjusted to 7) for more
than 1 week, it resulted in only 77 mV and in spite of employing
carbon veil as electrode. Carbon veil is well known for its
highly porous nature which favours biofilm formation.
Therefore, the complex heavy metals in the electroplating
wastewater must have contributed for longer duration of
acclimatization of the microbial consortium to the wastewater.
Before starting up the reaction a pinch of BES (BromoEthane-
Sulphonate) was added to eliminate the methane formation
because the methane gas would affect the power generation
[9]. The reactor was operated in open circuit mode without any
external resistance. The substrate was added in the dual
chambered MFC during this acclimatization stage. The reactor
was changed into closed-circuit mode when the open-circuit
voltage reached 180 mV. The phosphate buffer solution
[NaH2PO4$H2O 2.45 g/L, Na2HPO4 -58 g/L, KCl 0.13 g/L and
NH4Cl 0.31 g/L] was used to fill the cathode. The effectiveness
of the phosphate diffusion is ten times that of the proton free
diffusion. At the top of the cathode chamber, one part is pre-
sent for aeration and a wire point is present for circuit
connection. Before filling up the cathode chamber with phos-
phate buffer, the phosphate buffer was maintained at a con-
stant pH of 7. The electrode used in booth the anode and
cathode chamber in the MFC is the carbon veil electrode of
dimension 15 cm by 9.5 cm one of the key components in
deciding the performance of the MFC is the electrodes.
Henceforth, these electrodes are placed in the anode and
cathode chamber in tubular form. The carbon veil electrodes
used in the MFC are having several advantageous properties
such as good chemical stability, conductivity, low cost, high
Fig. 1 e Power production during startup phase.
4 international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx
mechanical strength, higher adsorption capacity, and surface
area over other type of electrode such as activated carbon fibre
felt (ACFF), carbon cloth (CC) and carbon paper (CP) [10]. A
gasket holding the proton exchange membrane is used for
connecting the two chambers.
Operational conditions
The reactor was operated at OL 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, and 2.5 g COD/L.
the different OL. At each OL, the removal efficiency of COD and
solids were determined along with the total power generated.
The wastewater in the MFC was periodically checked for its pH
and the pH was maintained at 7.0.
Experimental analysis
At definite time intervals, a digital multimeter was used to
measure the voltage across the external circuit which con-
tains a resister. The equation described by Jayashree et al. [10]
was utilized for deriving the power (mW).
P¼I*V
The power (mW) was calculated for wash OL, where P, I,
and V represents power, current, and voltage respectively.
Anode surface area was used for the calculation of current
denoting (Co) and power density (Po).
Coulombic efficiency (CE)
The formula described by Tamilarasan et al. [9] was used for
the calculation of CE.
CE ¼ 8*I/F*q*D COD
Where 8 is a constant, CE represents coulombic efficiency, I
represents current (A), F represents Faraday constant
(96,500C/mol), D COD represents the removal of COD (g/L), and
q represents the effluent of wastewater (m3/s). The possibility
for the presence of methanogenic bacteria in this study is
represented by the coulombic efficiency. Once the MFC
reached a steady stage, the polarization curve was obtained
for every OL by changing the external resistance of the circuit.
Analytical method
The analysis of total suspended solids (TSS), total chemical
oxygen demand (TCOD), soluble chemical oxygen demand
(SCOD), and the biological oxygen demand (BOD) were per-
formed by the standard methods mentioned in APHA [12]. All
the analyses were done in triplicate manner and the result is
the mean value of the triplicates.
Results and discussion
COD removal efficiency at various OL
The TCOD and SCOD in the influent of electroplating industry
wastewater were determined to be in the range of 500 mg/L
Please cite this article as: Karuppiah T et al., Processing of electroplating industry wastewater through dual chambered microbial fuel
cells (MFC) for simultaneous treatment of wastewater and green fuel production, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.034
and 360 mg/L, respectively. In this study, we varied the OL in
the range between 0.5 and 2.5 gCOD/L to evaluate the removal
efficiency of TCOD and SCOD by the dual chamber MFC. The
removal efficiency of TCOD by the dual chamber MFC at
varying OL is depicted in the figure. It can be observed from
the figure (Fig. 2) that with the increase in the organic load, the
removal efficiency of TCOD increases steadily and reaches a
maximum removal efficiency of about 87% at an organic load
of 1.5 gCOD/L. From this data, we can say that the operation
time and organic load required by the microorganism are the
two important factors to be considered for efficiently utilizing
the substrate. From the figure, it can be seen that with the
increase of organic load above 1.5 gCOD/L, the removal effi-
ciency of TCOD starts to decline gradually. At an organic load
of 2.0 and 2.5 gCOD/L, the removal efficiency of TCOD got
reduced to 79% and 68% respectively. The reason for the
reduction in the removal efficiency of COD with an increase in
organic load is the presence of methanogenic organisms.
Recent research state that whenever the organic substrate
loading rate is higher than that of the maximum electron
transfer rate of the dual-chamber MFC, we must consider that
the excess substrate provides a favorable condition for
methanogens and methanogenesis [13].
A similar trend was observed for the removal efficiency of
SCOD by the dual chamber MFC at varying OL. It can be
observed from the figure (Fig. 3) that the maximum SCOD
removal efficiency is about 79% at an organic load of 1.5 gCOD/
L. Like in the case of TCOD, the removal efficiency of SCOD
gradually decreased with an increase in organic load above 1.5
gCOD/L. The removal efficiency of SCOD decreased and
reached 72% and 61% at an organic load of 2.0 and 2.5 gCOD/L
respectively. The reason for the removal of maximum TCOD
and SCOD is due to the presence of electrogenic bacteria and
non-electrogenic bacteria (including methanogens) in the
anode chamber [14]. Since BES was added to the anode
chamber along with the substrate there might be predomi-
nant role of electrogenic microorganism in the COD removal.
The above statement is supported by Arulazhagan et al. [15],
who in his study reported that excess of substrate provides a
niche for methanogens and methanogenesis must be antici-
pated whenever substrate loading rate is higher than the
maximum electron transfer rate of the MFC [9]. Recent
Fig. 2 e TCOD concentration and its removal efficiency.
 international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx 5

Fig. 3 e SCOD removal efficiency at various OL. Fig. 4 e Effect of TSS removal on different OL.

research state that whenever the organic substrate loading
rate is higher than that of the maximum electron transfer rate
of the dual-chamber MFC, we must consider that the excess
substrate provides a favorable condition for methanogens and
methanogenesis [13].
The wastewaters nature and flow rate in MFC, the source of
inoculum, surface area and characteristics of the electrode
used, configuration of the MFC, and membrane between the
chambers are the differing aspects that make the MFC studies
difficult to compare. The maximum COD removal efficiency of
MFC utilizing various types of wastewater is depicted in Table
2. When compared to the maximum COD removal efficiency
of dual chambered MFC utilizing various types of wastewater
such as swine wastewater (77.1%), paper recycling wastewater
(76%), fish market wastewater (80%), Domestic wastewater
(54.2%), and slaughterhouse wastewater (72%), our work
which utilizes dye industry wastewater (85%) has the highest
COD removal efficiency.
removal efficiency of TSS decreases with the increase in the
organic load and reaches a minimum of 56% at 2.2 gCOD/L.
This reduction in the removal efficiency of TSS with an in-
crease in organic load is due to the longitudinal section of the
dual-chamber MFC. At higher organic load, the fermentable
organic matters present in the wastewater get fermented and
forms an intermediate product. This intermediate product
gets accumulated in the MFC and reduces the removal effi-
ciency by intoxicating the microorganisms [16]. Owing to this,
the biomass gets reduced resulting in increased TSS concen-
tration in the effluent. In our study, the TSS concentration was
minimum at 1.5 gCOD/L and maximum removal efficiency
resulted as there was no loss of biomass. Table 3.
Effect of OL on power production
After keeping the anaerobic dual-chamber MFC (treating
electroplating industry wastewater) in an open circuit for 15

Effect of TSS at various OL

Table 3 e Effluent characteristics of dye processing
The initial concentration of TSS in the electroplating industry industry wastewater (after treatment).
wastewater was in the range of 790 mg/L. The variation in the Parameter Values
concentration and removal efficiency of TSS with respect to
pH 6.7
the OL is depicted in Fig. 4. From the figure, it can observe that
Total suspended solids (mg/L) 530 ± 25
the removal efficiency of TSS by the dual chamber MFC in- Chemical oxygen demand (mg/L) 155 ± 6
creases gradually with the increase in the organic load and Soluble chemical oxygen demand (mg/L) 173 ± 6
reaches a maximum of 72% at 1.5 gCOD/L. After this point, the Biochemical oxygen demand (mg/L) 50 ± 3

Table 2 e Comparison of COD removal with various wastewater.

Type of Reactor Anode material Type of Wastewater Maximum COD Reference
removal efficiency (%)
Dual chambered MFC (continuous mode) Graphite felt Swine wastewater 77.1 [4]
Dual chambered MFC (fed - batch mode) Carbon brush Paper recycling wastewater 76 [14]
Dual chambered MFC (fed - batch mode) Stainless steel mesh Fish market wastewater 80 [7]
Dual chambered MFC (continuous mode) Graphite fiber brush Domestic wastewater 54.2 [15]
with titanium core
Dual chambered MFC (fed - batch mode) Graphite rod Slaughterhouse wastewater 72 [10]
Dual chambered MFC (fed - batch mode) Carbon fibre brush Dye industry wastewater 85 This study
with titanium wire

Please cite this article as: Karuppiah T et al., Processing of electroplating industry wastewater through dual chambered microbial fuel
cells (MFC) for simultaneous treatment of wastewater and green fuel production, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.034
6 international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

days in the acclimatization phase, an open circuit voltage of
100 mV was obtained. As the microorganisms require more
time in the inoculum for stabilizing, the open circuit mode
was maintained for 30 days. Following this, the electroplating
industry wastewater was supplied to the dual-chamber MFC
at various organic load after closing the open circuit. The po-
larization curve obtained at various organic load while treat-
ing the electroplating industry wastewater using dual-
chamber MFC is depicted in Fig. 5. The polarization curve
was drawn by based on the study of Min and Logan [17] and
Arulazhagan et al [15], the external resistance varies in the
range of in the range of 16,000 Ue100 U was chosen and
incorporated in polarization curves. In our study, the MFC
behaved similarly to a typical fuel cell. When the external load
was removed, the MFC stabilized rapidly at higher resistance
and the MFC stabilized slowly at lower resistance. At lower
and higher resistance, a maximum power density of about 49
and 55 mW/m2 (1.2 and 1.3 W/m3) was obtained respectively.
Owing to the anode surfaces slow redox condition, the voltage
of the MFC declined sharply in the initial stages at lower
resistance disregarding the organic load. Due to the decrease
in voltage, the current density of the MFC increased sharply.
This is caused by the ohmic losses occurring due to the ionic
resistance of all circuit elements [18]. Research states that the
power produced by the MFC is dependent on the loading rate
of the wastewater [9]. At an organic load of 0.5 gCOD/L, the
voltage, current density, and power density obtained by the
MFC is 650 mV, 180 mA/m2, and 120 mW/m2 (2.9 W/m3)
respectively. With further increase in the organic load to 1.0
gCOD/L, the voltage, current density, and power density
increased to about 750 mV, 280 mA/m2, and 180 mW/m2
(4.3 W/m3) respectively, and reached a maximum value of
80 mV, 370 mA/m2, and 260 mW/m2 (6.2 W/m3) at an organic
load of 1.5 g COD/L. One of the reasons for the increase in
power density after increasing the organic load could be due
to the inoculum utilizing the wastewater effectively. It can be
noted that we obtained maximum voltage, power density, and
current density at an organic load in which we obtained

Fig. 5 e Effect power production on different OL.

Please cite this article as: Karuppiah T et al., Processing of electroplating industry wastewater through dual chambered microbial fuel
cells (MFC) for simultaneous treatment of wastewater and green fuel production, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.034
 international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx
maximum COD removal efficiency. From the figure, we can
observe that by increasing the organic load from 1.5 gCOD/L to
2.0 g COD/L, the voltage, current density, and power density of
the MFC decreases to 670 mV, 310 mA/m2, and 200 mW/m2
(4.8 W/m3) respectively. The reason for the reduction in
voltage, current density, and power density at higher organic
load is due to the saturation of the activity of the microor-
ganisms at higher organic load. To utilize MFC for treating
wastewater efficiently and obtain maximum voltage, power
density, a current density, we must eliminate this internal
resistance. Some of the various factors that determine the
internal resistance of the MFC are the electrode material,
reactor configuration, loading rate of the wastewater, and
distance between the electrodes [19]. We achieved a
maximum power density of 260 mW/m2 (6.2 W/m3) at an
organic load of 1.5 gCOD/L and the internal resistance of the
MFC at this condition was 300U. Hence to increase the power
production efficiency of the dual-chamber MFC, the reactor
must be designed and configured in such a way to reduce the
ohmic losses [20].
Coulombic efficiency
In our study, maximum coulombic efficiency was obtained at
lower organic load, and with an increase in organic load, the
Coulombic efficiency gradually decreases. We obtained a
maximum coulombic efficiency of about 56% at an organic
load of 0.5 gCOD/L (Fig. 6). The reason for maximum
coulombic efficiency at lower organic load is that with less
amount of substrate present for the methanogens to produce
methane, coulombic efficiency increases [21]. Competition
between exo electrogenic micro-organisms and other types of
bacteria with respect to anode surface at high organic loading
can pave the way to decrease in coulombic efficiency [9]. At
the organic load corresponding to the highest power density,
the coulombic efficiency decreased to about 35%. Owing to the
anode surface's high saturation condition, the electrogenic
bacteria and other bacteria are made to compete with each
other. This is the reason for the decrease in the coulombic
efficiency of the dual-chamber MFC [22e24]. The minimum
coulombic efficiency of 15% was obtained at an organic load of
2.5 gCOD/L. The coulombic efficiency of the dual chambered
MFC utilizing various types of wastewater such as seafood
Fig. 6 e Effect of organic load in coulombic efficiency.
Please cite this article as: Karuppiah T et al., Processing of electroplating industry wastewater through dual chambered microbial fuel
cells (MFC) for simultaneous treatment of wastewater and green fuel production, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.06.034
7
industry wastewater (52 ± 2.4%) [25], cattle wastewater (54.9%)
[26] and domestic wastewater (7%) [27] are less when
compared to that of our work (56%).
Conclusion
For the production of sustainable energy, complex industrial
wastewater is being identified as a potential substrate. De-
mand for eco-friendly technology to the removal of organic
pollutants from the industrial wastewater and the MFC is only
the best suitable method in future generation. The dual
chambered anaerobic MFC performed under batch mode for
the treatment of electroplating industrial wastewater accom-
plished power production simultaneously organic removal.
The important key parameters for the predictions of MFC
performance such as TCOD, SCOD and TSS removal effi-
ciencies were achieved 87%, 79% and 72% respectively at a OL
of 1.5 gCOD/L. the maximum power and current density were
found to be 260 mW/m2 (6.2 W/m3) and 364 mA/m2 respectively
was achieved at the same optimum OL of 1.5gCOD/L. From the
research outcomes, it can be a promising economical feasible
technique for an industrial wastewater treatment.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
R. S is thankful to the Graduate School and Faculty of Science,
Chulalongkorn University (U), for senior post-doctoral fellow-
ship from CU Ratchadaphiseksomphot Endowment Fund. The
authors would like to thank IGPRED (www.igpred.com) for
providing insight and expertise on the research topic and for
the assistance that greatly improved the manuscript.
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