Comparative Study Between Single-Chamber and Dual-Chamber Microbial Fuel Cell on Petroleum Hydrocarbon Degradation in Contaminated Sediment

Abstract

A waste to energy approach in pollution controls is highly desirable to create a green and sustainable environment. Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC), which converts organic to electricity via the help of microorganism is one of the examplatory approach of waste to energy concept. Here we tried to find out the influence of MFC technology to the degradation of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) on contaminated sediment. The research used completely randomized design with three treatments and three replications which were control, single-chamber MFC and dual-chamber MFC observed for twenty days. The result showed that the TPH content degraded around 10.26%, 46.15 and 25.64% for control, single-chamber MFC and dual-chamber MFC treatments, respectively. The electricity production for single-chamber treatments was 184.36 mV, 179.59 mA/m2 and 50.57 W/m2 and for dual-chamber MFC was 57.58 mV, 62.51 mA/m2 and 5.76 W/m2. According to annova analysis at 5% significance rate, it could be concluded that the use of MFC technology had shown a significant effect to TPH degradation on contaminated sediment.