Improved degradation of dye wastewater and enhanced power output in microbial fuel cells with chemically treated corncob anodes

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology efficiently handles the two issues of pollution removal and energy generation at the same time; however, it is limited in its use due to a few fundamental constraints. The key operational constraints of the MFCs are the high cost of electrodes and membranes. To address these issues, carbonized corncob anodes were prepared, and the effect of chemical treatments such as 20% hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), 1 N NaOH, and 1 N FeCl₃ on the performance of a single chamber MFC was examined. The comparison of single-chamber MFCs with the bare anode (without any chemical treatment) and the chemically treated carbonized corncob anode were performed. The comparison revealed the excellent electro-catalytic activity in MFC with 20% H₂O₂ treated anode, exhibiting 91% decrease in internal resistance along with 89% improvement in the maximum power density (89.7 mW/m²). The H₂O₂-treated anode demonstrated an increase in oxygen molecule containing functional groups which favored the electron transfer between the bacteria and electrodes. Furthermore, MFCs with 20% H₂O₂-treated anode resulted in 18% higher decolorization efficiency of dye wastewater than bare anode. The use of corncob as an anode material made the MFC device construction easier and economical and provided a way forward to study other cheap agro waste materials for use as anode and cathode materials.