MATHEMATICAL MODELLING AND OPTIMIZATION OF ELECTRICITY GENERATION IN MICROBIAL FUEL CELL BY USING SEWAGE SLUDGE

Nur Syahmina, Ibrahim (2020) MATHEMATICAL MODELLING AND OPTIMIZATION OF ELECTRICITY GENERATION IN MICROBIAL FUEL CELL BY USING SEWAGE SLUDGE. [Final Year Project Report] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

In Malaysia, renewable energy resources contributed to only 0.3% in electricity generation mix which was lower than other sources such as natural gas, coal, hydro, oil, diesel, and others. Solar, biogas, and biomass were the three sources of renewable energy that had a high potential to be utilized to minimize the high dependence on fossil fuels in generating power. Therefore, this research mainly focused on the use of high content solid wastes (HCSWs), specifically sewage sludge, in generating electricity by using microbial fuel cell (MFC) since the MFC was capable to simultaneously treat wastewater and recover energy to generate power. An attempt was made to develop the MFC model which considered complex substrates similar to that in the sewage sludge and validate it with experimental data obtained in the previous literature. By incorporating mass and charge balances as well as biochemical reactions, the two-chamber MFC model was formulated which simulated voltage, the concentration of each component, and the effect of fuel concentration on power production at a steady state. Next, validation was done on the executed mathematical model by optimizing the capacitance of anode and cathode with the main objective to minimize the deviation between the predicted data and the experimental data. After the optimization, a mean deviation of 19.68% was successfully achieved which was much smaller when compared to the previously implemented model which was at 20.96% deviation from the experimental data. Results revealed that the increase in the concentration of fuel contributed to a boost of power generated while the increase in feed flow rate resulted in a decrease in power output. This, in turn, proposed a further understanding of MFC behaviour.

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