Electricity production from dairy wastewater using phosphotungstic acid- Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Membrane supported microbial fuel cell

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are device to use waste materials to product electricity. This is of great importance for both waste management and energy production. In MFCs, proton exchange membranes (PEM) are frequently used. Therefore, electricity production and efficiency directly depend on the hydrogen transfer performance of these membranes. In this study, phosphotungstic acid (PTA) doped nanofiber polyvinyldifloride (PVDF) membranes were prepared and the electricity production potential from dairy industry wastewater was examined. The morphological property, the chemical structure, mechanical strength, and the antimicrobial property of membranes were investigated. Water uptake, proton conductivity, and the ion exchange capacity of membranes were also studied. Finally, the electricity production potential of membranes in dual-chamber MFC system was investigated. As a result, it was observed that the increasing PTA ratio reduced the fiber diameter from micro-scale to nano-scale. The PTA edition improved the mechanical strength from 5.67 MPa to 8.86 Mpa, the proton conductivity from 0.56 mS/cm to 1.61 mS/cm. The power generation of the cell increased almost more than 3 times to 8.8 mW/m2. It was also observed that PTA additive significantly enhanced the antimicrobial effect of the membrane.