EARTH

[31013-24-08] Bioenergy Generation in Microbial Fuel Cells Using a Blend of Chitosan-Alginate Recovered from Waste Materials

○Narangarav Terbish¹, Shima Latoya Holder¹, Ching-Hwa Lee¹, Srinivasa R Popuri² (1. Da-Yeh University, 2. The University of the West Indies)

Chairman: Suwat Athichanagorn （Chulalongkorn University）, Min Xiabo (Central South University)

Keywords:Bioenergy, Microbial Fuel Cell, Chitosan, Alginate, Waste Recovery

In recent decades, power production utilizing wastes as sustainable resources have been attracted much attention due to limited fossil fuels and its considerable influences of climate change. A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a device that exploit an active microbe as a biocatalyst in an anode compartment for power generation from organic matters in wastewater. The proton exchange membrane (PEM) plays an important role in the generating electrical current. This study deals with the synthesis and characterization of green copolymer-blend membranes consisting of chitosan (CS) derived from chitin recovered from waste crab shells, and alginate (Alg) from brown seaweeds both cheaply and abundantly found in nature. The blended PEMs were prepared at various volume ratios, including pristine CS and Alg PEMs, in order to elucidate the effect of each polymer on MFC performance. The synthesized membranes are investigated by maximum power density generated through MFCs operated with municipal wastewater as anolyte and 50mM potassium ferricyanide as catholyte.