Exploring Potential Aspect of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) for Simultaneous Energy, Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Production and Textile Wastewater (TW) Treatment.

In the current study, bioelectricity and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production were integrated by a dual chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) using Enterobacter sp. TS1L and textile wastewater (TW), and the method was evaluated. The highest open circuit voltage (OCV, 986.50 mV), current density (CD, 6.04 W/m³) and power density (PD, 0.32 W/m³) were observed when sterile TW was used as the substrate. Sterilization had no effect on electricity generation, while the OCV, CD and PD were not significantly different. The prolong MFC was operated by Enterobacter sp. TS1L using non-sterile TW for a period of 7 days. Throughout the 7-day operation, the experiment yielded a consistent CD output, ranging from 1.56 A/m³ to 2.31 A/m³. After MFC treatment, the quality of the effluent surpassed the Thailand water quality standard. A high percentage of decolorization (72.9%) was observed by Enterobacter sp. under TW-fed MFC. Thereafter, biomass was collected, then, PHA was extracted and characterized. The highest biomass (3.5 ± 0.6 g/L) and PHA (56.1 ± 1.5% cell dry mass, CDM) level were observed at 6 days of MFC operation. The isolated polymer from Enterobacter sp. TS1L was confirmed to be medium chain length-co-long chain length PHA (mcl-co-lcl PHA) containing 3-hydroxyhexadecanoate (3HD, C14) and 3-hydroxyoctadecanoate (3HOD, C18). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]