Journal of Oil Palm Research Vol. 30 (3) September 2018, p. 503-514

PALM OIL MILL EFFLUENT’S MICROBIAL FUEL CELL’S OPTIMISATION PROCEDURE BY USING TWO-LEVEL FACTORIAL DESIGN METHOD AND CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND TREATMENT

KHAIRUL BAQIR ALKHAIR*; OSKAR HASDINOR HASSAN**; SHARIFAH AMINAH SYED MOHAMED*; YAP KIAN CHUNG ANDREWǂ; ZULKIFLI AB RAHMANǂ and MOHD ZU AZHAN YAHYAǂǂ

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2018.0040
Published Online: 3 September 2018
ABSTRACT

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technologies represent the newest approach for generating electricity (bioelectricity generation) from biomass using bacteria. Bio-electricity generations by MFC have gained considerable attention due to its integration with wastewater treatment. The objectives of the work are to determine the optimisation of MFC’s bio-electrochemical process using three different factors and its interaction, and to determine the optimal pH value for acidogenic, acetogenic and methanogenic by natural mixed culture electroactive bacteria (exoelectrogens) growth in presence and absence of oxygen using MFC. The two-level factorial design is used in order to achieve the main two objectives. The current generation, power generation and maximum power have been monitored. Experimental result shows that the best interaction between these three factors is (-+-) interaction which is the interaction between tryptic soya broth (TSB) , sodium hydroxide as pH controller and resistant of 200 Ω, and the interaction yield the power density of 57.44 mA/m2. The effects between those interactions also have been analysed. The interaction of all parameters that have been used in this experiment is given out the highest significant effect which is a value of effect of 24.56 with a significant F-value of 29.51. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction by MFC treatment data based on the COD effective deduction concept shows that DMP produced lower percentage of COD effective deduction efficiency compared to nDMP. nDMP was 342% to 441% more efficient to deduct COD compared to DMP. nDMP 6.8 recorded the most effective COD deduction by MFC devices at 29.17%.

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* Faculty of Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.

** Faculty of Art and Design, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
E-mail: oskar@salam.uitm.edu.my

ǂ Malaysian Palm Oil Board, 6 Persiaran Institusi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.

ǂǂ Faculty of Defence Science and Technology, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, 57000 Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.