Sreejon Das, Abu Yousuf, Md. Nasir Uddin, Maksudur Rahman Khan, Ahmed Nazmus Sakib

Generation of electricity from whey: An electrochemical process

This study is concentrated on the electricity generation from whey over and done with a fabricated electrochemical cell. Whey (milk serum) is one of the prominent sources of bio-electrolyte because of containing abundant amount of branched-chain amino acids. Moreover, the pH value of fresh whey was found about 3.1-3.3. Two categories of preservation techniques have been revealed by thermal treatment and adding 2% phenol by volume. It was observed that phenol treated whey was free form microbial attack for longer time compared to that of thermal treatment. In agitation assisted bio-electrochemical reactor, voltage and power density were increased with the increase of electrode surface area. Maximum 17.35 volt was obtained from 6.5 liters of whey through an agitation assisted electrochemical reactor. In addition, commercial alloy electrode shows satisfactory results on power generation and reducing internal resistance compares with the experimental pure metal electrode.

Keywords:

Bio-electricity; Whey; Bio-electrochemical reactor; Amino acid; Baffle agitation system,

PDF

___

A. Yadav, P. Panda, and B. Bag, “The performance improvement of microbial fuel cells using different waste-sludge as an inoculum”, Energ. Source. Part A, vol. 35, pp. 1828-1835, 2013.
M. Balat, “Microbial fuel cells as an alternative energy option”, Energ. Source. Part A, vol. 32, pp. 26-35, 2009.
M.M. Rhaman, “Hybrid Renewable Energy System for Sustainable Future of Bangladesh”, Int. J. Renew. Energ. Res., Vol. 3, pp. 777-780, 2013.
T. Sangeetha and M. Muthukumar, “Catholyte performance as an influencing factor on electricity production in a dual-chambered microbial fuel cell employing food processing wastewater”, Energ. Source. Part A, vol. 33, pp. 1514-1522, 2011.
A. Gurung and S.E. Oh, “The Improvement of Power Output from Stacked Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs)”, Energ. Source. Part A, vol. 34, pp. 1569-1576, 2012.
S. Venkata Mohan, G. Mohanakrishna, B.P. Reddy, R. Saravanan and P. Sarma, “Bioelectricity generation from chemical wastewater treatment in mediatorless (anode) microbial fuel cell (MFC) using selectively enriched hydrogen producing mixed culture under acidophilic microenvironment”, Biochem. Eng. J., vol. 39, pp. 121- 130, 2008.
Z. Li, X. Zhang and L. Lei, “Electricity production during the treatment of real electroplating wastewater containing Cr6+ using microbial fuel cell”, Process Biochem., vol. 43, pp. 1352-1358, 2008.
K. Palaniappan, R. Govindarasu and R. Parthiban, “Investigation of Flow Mal-distribution in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Stack”, Int. J. Renew. Energ. Res., vol. 2, pp. 652-656, 2012.
P. Kumaraswamy and S. Datta, “Bangladeshi gas misses India's energy drive?” Energ. Policy, vol. 34, pp. 1971- 1973, 2006.
A. Ghaly and M. Kamal, “Submerged yeast fermentation of acid cheese whey for protein production and pollution potential reduction”, Water Res., vol. 38, pp. 631-644, 2004.
P. Börgardts, W. Krischke, W. Trösch and H. Brunner, “Integrated bioprocess for the simultaneous production of lactic acid and dairy sewage treatment”, Bioprocess Eng., vol. 19, pp. 321-329, 1998.
P. Hobman, “Review of processes and products for utilization of lactose in deproteinated milk serum”, J. Dairy Sci., vol. 67, pp. 2630-1653, 1984.
U. Blum and S.R. Shafer, “Microbial populations and phenolic acids in soil”, Soil Biol. Biochem., vol. 20, pp. 793-800, 1988.
A. Kuiters and C. Denneman, “Water-soluble phenolic substances in soils under several coniferous and deciduous tree species”, Soil Biol. Biochem., vol. 19, pp. 765-769, 1987.
M.G. Fontana and N.D. Greene, Corrosion engineering, 2nd ed., McGraw Hill Book Co., New York, 1978.
Y. Fan, H. Hu, and H. Liu, “Enhanced Coulombic efficiency and power density of air-cathode microbial fuel cells with an improved cell configuration”, J. Power Sources, vol. 171, pp. 348-354, 2007.
A.R. Prazeres, F. Carvalho and J. Rivas, “Cheese whey management: A review”, J. Environ. Manag., vol. 110, pp. 48-68, 2012.
D.T. Whipple, E.C. Finke and P.J. Kenis, “Microfluidic reactor for the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide: the effect of pH”, Electrochem. Solid St., vol. 13, pp. B109-B11, 2010.
K.S. Yang, G. Mul and J.A. Moulijn, “Electrochemical generation of hydrogen peroxide using surface area- enhanced Ti-mesh electrodes”, Electrochim. Acta, vol. 52, pp. 6304-6309, 2007.
D.A. Jones, Principles and prevention of corrosion, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River NJ, 1996.
G.C. Moran and P. Labine, Corrosion Monitoring in Industrial Plants Using Nondestructive Testing and Electrochemical Montreal, Canada, 1986. ASTM International,
M. Di Lorenzo, K. Scott, T.P. Curtis and I.M. Head, “Effect of increasing anode surface area on the performance of a single chamber microbial fuel cell”, Chem. Eng. J., vol. 156, pp. 40-48, 2010.
K. Guthe, “Polarization and Internal Resistance of Electrolytic Cells”, Phys. Rev. (Series I), vol. 7, pp. 193, 1898.