Electricity generation from rice straw using a microbial fuel cell

Sedky H.A. Hassan, Sanaa M.F. Gad El-Rab, Mostafa Rahimnejad, Mostafa Ghasemi, Jin Ho Joo, Yong Sik-Ok, In S. Kim, Sang Eun Oh*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

107 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study demonstrated electricity generation from rice straw without pretreatment in a two-chambered microbial fuel cell (MFC) inoculated with a mixed culture of cellulose-degrading bacteria (CDB). The power density reached 145 mW/m2 with an initial rice straw concentration of 1 g/L; while the coulombic efficiencies (CEs) ranged from 54.3 to 45.3%, corresponding to initial rice straw concentrations of 0.5-1 g/L. Stackable MFCs in series and parallel produced an open circuit voltage of 2.17 and 0.723 V, respectively, using hexacyanoferrate as the catholyte. The maximum power for serial connection of three stacked MFCs was 490 mW/m2 (0.5 mA). In parallelly stacked MFCs, the current levels were approximately 3-fold (1.5 mA) higher than those produced from the serial connection. These results demonstrated that electricity can be produced from rice straw by exploiting CDB as the biocatalyst. Thus, this method provides a promising way to utilize rice straw for bioenergy production.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9490-9496
Number of pages7
JournalInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume39
Issue number17
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 5 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Bioelectricity generation
  • Microbial fuel cells
  • Rice straw
  • Stacked MFCs

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Fuel Technology
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology

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