Utilization of sugarcane bagasse as an initial substance for microbial fuel cell production

Abstract

The yeast-based microbial fuel cell (YB-MFC) is bio-electrochemical system that can recover energy from organic matter in the term of electricity. This device is usually uses for wastewater treatment because it can be applied with several substances to act as an electron donor. The aims of this research were to adapt the use of sugarcane bagasse as an initial substance in YB-MFC and to optimize the anolyte conditions to improve electricity production performance. The sugarcane bagasse was pretreated by alkaline hydrogen peroxide solution. The chemical composition of pretreated sugarcane bagasse were 81.68% of cellulose, 8.37% of hemicellulose, and 2.84% of lignin that pure cellulosic fiber affected the enhancement of the enzyme digestibility. Therefore, the sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate contained the total reducing sugar content of 7.98% (w/v) including glucose of 0.46% and xylose 0.37% (w/v). The results revealed the optimum conditions in anolyte solution including 4% (w/v) of reducing sugar in sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate, 2% (w/v) of NaCl, and adding 0.5% (w/v) of yeast powder by operating with coculture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae EC-1118 and Pichia kudriavzevii TISTR 5147. The maximum voltage and maximum power density as 0.878 V, and 326 mW/m2, respectively. According to the electricity production efficiency, this were indicated that a power density of 5.21 W/m2 was generated from 1 kg of sugarcane bagasse. Moreover, the amount of ethanol was produced 82 g as by-product.