Potential of Different Wastewater Samples from Naic and Tanza, Cavite as Feed Source for Generating Electricity through Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs)

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Pollution has now been increasing as our technology is advancing. Water pollution is one of the worst pollutions existing today mainly because of today's growing industries. The Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), gaining much attention nowadays because of its ability to generate power from organic or inorganic compounds via microorganisms, is now considered as an alternative source of electricity for satisfying the high demand of energy. This research study aimed to investigate the potential of the three different wastewater samples from Naic and Tanza, Cavite as a feed source for generating electricity through mediator-less microbial fuel cells.

METHODS

The potential of the three different wastewater samples (residential, industrial, and agricultural) gathered from Naic and Tanza, Cavite in generating electricity through microbial fuel cells was tested. The data gathered was then analyzed using One-way ANOVA.

RESULTS

Data gathered showed that all the types of wastewater (industrial, residential, agricultural) from Naic and Tanza, Cavite tested in the study has the potential to be a feed source for microbial fuel cells for generating electricity. Among the three wastewater samples, the agricultural wastewater had the highest amount of open-circuit potential produced on average. The data collected is subjected to One -Way Analysis of Variance (One-way ANOVA). For the first trial, it was observed that the F-calculated, 50.5772, is greater than the F-crit, 9.552094. For the second trial, the F-calculated 13.45813, is greater than the F-crit 9.552094 which means that the null hypothesis will be rejected and that there is a significant difference between the open-circuit potential generated from the three wastewater samples.

DISCUSSIONS

From the results gathered, it can be inferred that there were some fluctuations when it comes to the voltages produced by the device per week. According to Neshat (2017), the sudden increase of voltage in some is normal especially if it is in the startup period and the adaptation of the bacteria to the feed is the reason for this phenomenon. in the process of generating electricity in MFCs, the component that has the most important role is the bacteria that oxidize organic substrates to produce electricity (Harwani, 2013). On the other hand, consistency can still be seen as the industrial wastewater's and the residential wastewater's average OCP remained the same throughout the experimentation period.