Comparing efficacy of anodic and cathodic chambers in a low-cost algae-assisted microbial fuel cell for textile wastewater remediation

Remediation of industrial textile effluent using both the anodic and cathodic chambers of an algae-assisted microbial fuel cell (AMFC) is demonstrated and evaluated in this study. A low-cost AMFC is developed using clayware as the anode compartment housed inside a plastic bucket which acts as the cathode chamber. A comparative analysis of textile wastewater (TWW) treatment in both chambers is presented. Four treatment configurations were considered, namely T1 (only cathode supplied with TWW), T2 (both cathode and anode supplied with TWW), T3 (only anode supplied with TWW) and the control AMFC (no TWW was added in any compartment). It was observed that the bacterial populations in the anodic compartment were more adapted towards TWW than the microalgae in the cathodic chamber. The color removal efficiency by the anode and cathode chamber was respectively 89.55% and 40.53%. The COD removal was 94% and 48% from the anodic and cathodic chambers respectively. The T3 AMFC with effluent being supplied only to the anode chamber exhibited the highest power and current density of 2.1 W/m³ and 8 A/m³. The proposed system was able to degrade dyes from real textile wastewater and simultaneously generate bioelectricity and algal biomass.