Simultaneous landfill leachate treatment and electricity production by sediment microbial fuel cell

The sediment microbial fuel cell (SMFC) is a new technology that uses exoelectrogenic bacteria and organic compounds to transform chemical energy into electrical energy. The application of SMFC technology is gaining popularity since it can simultaneously reduce contaminants in wastewater and generate electricity. An SMFC performance is mainly governed by the kinetics of the electrodes within the fuel cell, of which the materials that make up the electrodes significantly impact their performance. The objective of the ongoing investigation was to study the performance of three types of electrodes for minimizing pollutants from landfill leachate wastewater while also generating electrical energy. Sediment and leachate samples were taken from the Regional Landfill wastewater treatment facility in Blang Bintang, Aceh Besar, the Province of Aceh. Three transparent acrylic reactors with a length, width, and height of 45 cm, 20 cm, and 12 cm, respectively, were employed in this experiment. The electrode materials utilized in this study were zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and iron (Fe), with each electrode having a surface area of 124 cm2. Temperature, pH, voltage, and carbonaceous compound removal measured as COD were used to assess the SMFC performance. The study results showed that the temperature and pH of the three reactors have a similar trend, and the values are not much different at 24.36±0.25°C and 9±0.03, respectively. The reactor installed with Cu electrode produced the maximum electrical voltage of 470 mV, whereas those with Fe and Zn had the highest voltages of 107 mV and 23 mV, respectively. The percentage of COD removal for reactors equipped with Zn, Cu, and Fe electrodes was 40.70%, 41.09%, and 41.23%, respectively. Although the COD removal by each reactor of different electrode materials did not show a significant difference, the reactor with Cu electrode gave better performance when viewed from the electrical voltage.