Performance of Paracoccus homiensis DRR-3 in microbial fuel cell with membranes

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the bioelectricity production of Paracoccus homiensis strain DRR-3, a Gram-negative bacterium with Nafion117 and polymer membranes. Among the various electrodes used, carbon paper showed a higher production of 790 mV and 0.13 mA with Nafion 117 membrane and 290 mV and 0.10 mA with salt bridge as a proton exchanger. The scanning electron micrograph of the biofilm attached to the anode revealed the presence of P. homiensis. A major highlight in this study is to reveal the efficiency of the two membranes made of conducting polymers (polyvindylene difluoride [PVDF] and polycarbazole [PCZ]) in the proton transfer. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to study the anode resistance, total resistance of the microbial fuel cell and to recognise the membrane which facilitates the efficient proton transfer. The PVDF membrane showed a better performance of bioelectricity generation when compared to Nafion and PCZ membrane with a low R_ct value of 45.05 Ω and R_s of 23.61 Ω.

KEYWORDS:

• Paracoccus homiensis
• Nafion membrane
• PCZ membrane
• PVDF membrane
• charge transfer resistance

Acknowledgements

We are very much thankful to the Head of the Department, Chemistry for helping us with the Instrumentation facility for the cyclic voltammogram and Electron Impedance spectroscopy experiments. We wish to convey our special thanks to Nanotechnology Research Centre, SRM University for helping in the Scanning Electron Microscope images.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.