Performance Evaluation of Microbial Fuel Cell Fabricated Using Green Low Cost Nanocarbonized Anode Material

A dual chamber Microbial fuel cell (MFC) with variation of current collectors and electrodes material in anode and cathode chambers are applied to optimize the operating conditions for bioelectricity generation. To enhance the working efficacy of the fabricated MFC, nanocarbonized materials prepared from pomegranate peel waste at different temperatures 300, 500 and 700ºC are employed as coating anode materials. Nanocarbonized material prepared at 500ºC showed high distribution pore size, high stability and multilayer graphene structure. Electrical current and cell potential are measured daily and electrochemical behavior of MFC are monitored by cyclic voltammetry and impedance measurements. Results revealed that the anode coated with carbonized material prepared at 500oC provides high MFC performance yielding (2.85-fold power density increase), low diffusive resistance, improved extracellular electrons mechanism and charge transfer resistance demonstrating the cell as capacitor. In this regard, nanocarbonized materials prepared from peels are promising candidates for highly efficient MFC coated anodes.