Performance of the Dual-Chamber Fungal Fuel Cell in Treating Tannery Wastewater

Abstract

Fungi are typically expressed as excellent microorganisms that produce extracellular enzymes used in the bioaccumulation phenomenon. In this study, laboratory-scale dual-chamber fungal fuel cells (FFCs) were applied as an alternate approach for the available degradation of complex organic pollutants represented in chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total nitrogen (TN), as well as inorganic pollutants represented as total chromium (Cr), and the generation of bioenergy represented in output voltages (V), power density (PD) and current density (CD), as applied to tannery effluent. Aspergillus niger strain, (A. niger), which makes up 40% of the fungal population in tannery effluent was examined in a training study for efficient hexavalent chromium bioaccumulation, especially in high concentrations. The trained A. niger showed a faster growth rate than the untrained one in broth media containing different loaded chromium concentrations. For an external resistance of 1000 Ω, two FFCs were utilized, one with electrolytic matrices including phosphate buffer solution (PBS) and bicarbonate buffer solution (BBS), and the other without electrolytic matrices, where the energy generation and treatment efficacy of the two dual-chamber FFCs were evaluated for a period of 165 h. At 15 h, the electrolytic FFCs showed a high voltage output of 0.814 V, a power density of 0.097 mW·m−2, and a current density of 0.119 mAm−2 compared to the non-electrolytic FFC. At 165 h, the electrolytic FFCs showed high removal efficiency percentages for COD, TN, and total Cr of up to 77.9%, 94.2%, and 73%, respectively, compared to the non-electrolytic FFC.