Evaluation of Open Circuit Voltages of Microbial Fuel Cells from Cow and Pig Dungs

Abstract

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) has many potential applications, including wastewater treatment, environmental monitoring and bioenergy production. The comparison of the open circuit voltages OCV values for three MFC set-ups using cow dung, pig dung and the combination of cow and pig dungs was carried out in this study.  The MFC fabricated locally consist of two chambers – the anode, which is an anaerobic digestion of organic waste with an electrode on top of the digester lid while potassium permanganate was mixed with water in a chamber to form the cathode with an electrode on top of the lid. The two chambers were linked with a proton exchange membrane (PEM) made with agarose agar using PVC pipe.  For 30 days, the OCV of the MFC set-ups were recorded. The OCV values for the three set-ups were compared. According to the results, the average OCV values for cow dung, pig dung, and a mixture of both are 1.014 V, 0.610 V and 0.430 V, respectively. This shows that cow dung produced the highest OCV values, followed by pig dung. The OCV values from the mixture of both had the lowest results.