BIO - ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION FROM ORGANIC WASTE USING SINGLE CHAMBER MICROBIAL FUEL CELL (MFC)

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are devices that use microorganisms including bacteria and yeast to generate electricity from organic matter. In this paper we report the generation of electricity using a single chamber microbial fuel cell in which grape waste extract was used as organic substrate with and without the use of thionine, neutral red and toludine blue as mediators. Further, we compared the efficiency of different electrod es like magnesium, graphite, copper and zinc in bioelectricity generation as the electrodes play a major role in harnessing the electricity without any loss. The power generation while using the mediator thionine has showed the maximum voltage of (2.5 V) w ith magnesium electrode compared to toludine blue (2.35 V) and Neutral Red (2.2 V). Various parameters such as change in pH, conductivity and specific gravity were also studied. The conductivity of the samples increased from 2.5 m? to 3 m? indicating the r elease of ions during the break down of organic substrate.