San Pablo City Science Integrated High School

Barangay San Jose, San Pablo City Laguna

S.Y. 2019- 2020

Electricity Generation Potential of Poultry Droppings Wastewater in

Microbial Fuel Cell Using Zea mays Cob (Corn cob) Charcoal Electrodes

Research Proposal

Proponents:

Jana Louise P. San Juan

Elijah P. Exconde

Mavrick Y. Velasco

Research Adviser: Ms. Jamaica Q. Ramirez

 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Poultry is the most progressive animal enterprises within the Philippines nowadays.

Therefore, the country is additionally one amongst the world's major and quickest

producers of meat whereas, within the Philippines. It's been a significant contributor to

the country's agriculture sector (Poultry information network); however, its dejection is

one amongst the toughest issue of getting a poultry business, additionally, to, it

conjointly affects environmental problems like pollution. Also, the Philippines is

principally an agricultural country with an area of thirty million hectares; forty-seven % of

that is agricultural. The overall space dedicated to crops is thirteen million hectares

distributed among food grains, food crops, and non-food crops. It is calculable that four

million a lot of grain maize and 0.96 million many maize cobs created yearly within the

Philippines (Zafar, 2019). Though some are mistreatment cobs as fuels for preparation,

additional Filipinos are simply abandonment their cobs once corn. In these reasonable

things, Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) can exceptionally be useful for the U.S.A. because

lots of studies have shown that microbial fuel cells are excellent sources of electricity

with organic electrodes.

MFCs could be a bio-electrochemical device that harnesses the ability to breathe

microbes to convert organic substrates directly into power, microbes like microorganisms

change state chemistry oxidations or reductions at AN anode or cathode, severally, to

provide an electrical current. (Clark, Pazdernik, 2016)

MFCs are devices that use living microbes as anode catalysts for generating

electricity from organic matter and have attracted social attention because of their ability

to come up with electricity from waste biomass and effluent (Anyanwu et al., 2018)

Moreover, the critical element of the MFCs is electrodes. The bio-anode wherever

microorganisms grow as a biofilm operates as living biocatalysts. (Anyanwu, et al., 2018)

Carbon-based materials are most often used as each anode and cathode electrodes.

Carbon-based electrodes that are unremarkably used in MFCs because of their

biocompatibility, long sturdiness, smart physical phenomenon, and low price. Because

the anode, carbon materials will considerably promote surface microbial colonization and

accelerate the formation of extracellular biofilms, which eventually promotes the power

density by providing a contributive microenvironment for extracellular lepton transfer. (Li

et al., 2009) Many studies have examined the utilization of carbon-based electrodes as

elements for lepton transfers in MFCs. A previous study includes corncob-based C as

conductor material for electrical double-layer capacitors (Liu et al., 2009). Nobody has

examined the potentiality and effectiveness of corn-cob charcoal as a conductor to the

MCF that is that the Poultry dejection effluent. The core is the conductor, whereas

variable concentrations of poultry dejection effluent. The result which can be littered with

the variations of Poultry Droppings Waster water is ascertained and compared.

 STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study is to provide a more convenient way to generate electricity

by using Zea mays Cob as a microbial fuel cell. This research study could benefit

researchers conducting studies about microbial fuel cells and finding uses for Zea mays

cob. The study is expected to provide answers for the following:

1. Can corn-cob be a functioning microbial fuel cell?

2. Would the electricity produce be enough to power a lightbulb?

3. If the cob functions as a microbial fuel cell, how long will it last?
 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study was created to see the potential of poultry droppings wastewater in a

microbial fuel cell using corn cob charcoal electrode

Specifically, the study intended to answer the following questions.

1. How much poultry droppings wastewater will the researchers use in the

experiment?

2. What methods will be used in this experiment?

3. Can the corn cob charcoal work as an effective electrode?

 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

There are many people with poultry farms, and most of them say that the droppings

are a headache. Droppings also contribute to air pollution and bring diseases to people

just like asthma. While corncob, on the other hand, is also unprofitable, it will only attract

flies and mosquitos that bring diseases.

The significance of this study is that this will help generate new sources of energy by

using organic wastes that often harm the people and nature. In that way, we can make

fruitful things to help our environment and help people.

 DEFENITION OF TERMS

Anode “An anode is the electrode in a polarized

electrical device through which current

flows in from an outside circuit.” (Rouse,

2014)

“The section of an electrolyte that is

Anolyte around or attached to the anode.”

(HarperCollins Publishers, 2019)

According to Vidyasagar, “Biofilms are a

collective of one or more types of

Biofilms
microorganisms that can grow on many

different surfaces.”(2016)

It is any substance that increases the

Catalyst rate of reaction without it being

consumed. An example of this is

enzymes which are needed for

biochemical reactions (Augustyn, 2019)

Cathode It is an electrode in a polarized electrical

device where current moves out from an

outside circuit. (Rouse, 2014)

 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

1.) Poultry Droppings Wastewater

Poultry droppings are mostly the cause of environmental pollution and

aesthetic nuisance; thus, it being waste. (Anyanwu et. Al. 2018). That does not

mean it is useless. When you heat these droppings at a specific temperature, it

becomes a form of coal. That can be used to help plants and can be a renewable

source. (Zeldovich,2018). Poultry droppings are very abundant and easy to find.

It is also high in carbon and nitrogen, which are chemical elements used in

generating electricity. Professor Amit Gross, who was the leader in the study of

Poultry droppings as a renewable fuel for heat and energy, says, “Poultry litter

might be a notorious source of pollution, yet it has the potential to be an

important resource” (2017). It is also said that it can replace 10 percent of coal in

generating electricity. This can reduce carbon pollution, the main reason for

global warming and is a reliable source of electricity. It can also be a replacement

for plants that are for fuel places in which those plants will need unnecessary

water, land, and fertilizer; if you convert these poultry droppings to solid fuel,

which is a better option than those plants. Using two different processes, you can

create two different fuels; biochar, which is similar to charcoal because of how it

looks and the way it burns. The second fuel is hydrochar that mimics natural coal

formation. (Ben Gurion University, 2017)

2.) Corncob

The corncob is the center and cylindrical part of the corn ear to which the

kernels grow and attached. Maize is an important crop used by humans and

animals as food. The maize plant is consisting of the stalks, husks, shanks, silks,
leaf blades, leaf sheaths, tassels, and cobs. The corn cob puts the grain, and

together with associating husks, shanks and silks are harvested from the farm.

The other parts of the Zea Mays on the farm are left unused and to rot. 30% of

maize agro-wastes are from corn cobs. According to Zafar (2019), Maize is a

significant crop in the Philippines, and it generates large amounts of agricultural

residues like a corn cob. It is estimated that 4 million tons of grain maize and 0.96

million tons of maize cobs produced in the Philippines every year.

The agricultural residues from maize production are potential sources of an

electrode for electricity generation using microbial fuel cells. When Maize is

harvested in the field, the corn grain is separated from the cobs, stalks, and

leaves. While the grain is transported for storing and processing, the stover is

currently not widely collected. However, this biomass could be used as an

electrode for electricity generation of MFC Corn stover includes stalks, leaves,

and corn cobs. As a renewable raw material, the corncobs from grain maize are

a potential feedstock as an electrode. A past study from Anyanwu et al., (2018)

showed that rice husk charcoal could also be considered as doable electrode

materials in MFCs since substantial outputs were generated in rice husk microbial

fuel cells using poultry droppings wastewater as its fuel. This study has

addressed one of the recommendations of Asai et al. (2017) on the need for

further studies on the development of technologies for the production of cheaper

electrodes. Moreover, corncob has the potential of being an available electrode

with a more affordable value. A past study also showed that the usage of corncob

residue was practical to prepare porous carbon for supercapacitor electrodes

from An-Hiu et al., (2015).

3.) Microbial Fuel Cell

Microbial fuel cells, such as bacteria, generate electricity by catalyzing

electrochemical oxidations or reductions at an anode or cathode (Clark P. &

Pazdernik N. 2016). A process called Microbial Electrosynthesis provides

electrons to microorganisms colonizing an electrode to help with the reduction of

carbon dioxide to the compounds that are released from the cells (Lovley & Nevin,

2011). More information on microbial fuel cells can be found in the book

“Bioelectrochemical Systems: from extracellular electron transfer to a

biotechnological application,” which is edited by Korneel Rabaey et al. (2010)

Although it seems that microbial fuel cells could be a better source of electricity,

it is not. Sometime in July 2016, scientists invented a microbial fuel cell that runs

without external power, with the setup able to produce about 25 watts (Hifarva

AD, 2016). With this, microbial fuel cells would be not useful in producing energy

for machines requiring high amounts of electrical energy.

Methodology

1.) Gathering of Materials

Poultry droppings will be gathered from a poultry farm in San Pablo City,

Laguna. Samples will be prepared by having 500g of slurry concentrations as

feedstock. We will buy Farm Maize then we will cut corn off from the cob at

about two-sthirds the depth of the kernels until all of the corn is removed. We

will order two Perspex™ acrylic bottles online as it will be used chambers

2.) Construction of reactors

Chambers will be made with the electrodes in it which are made of Corncob

Charcoal Electrode (CCE). The carbon cloth electrode(CCE) will be used for the

second set of two reactors. Using the epoxy encapsulated copper wires, the

anode and cathode will be connected while the circuit will be done using an

external resistor fixed by 1kΩ. Then after this pre-treatment, we will carbonize

40 grams.

After pre-treatment, 40 g of rice husk will be carbonized at 499°C for 60

minutes in a muffle furnace so it will produce charcoal. We will crush samples

using blender and sieve after to a finely granulated charcoal then we will use

electrically conductive carbon epoxy to glue it together in an adhesive mix of 1:1

ratio and we will reshape it to form rods with the measurement of 8 cm by 3 cm

by 1 cm.

3.) Evaluation of Electricity generations in MFCs

The current and the voltage were monitored according to Anyanwu et al.,

(2018) Current density (CD, A m−3 ) must be calculated based on the volume of
 anolyte and voltage was must be converted to power density (PD, W m−3 )

according to an equation P=IV/volume of anolyte.

4.) Start-up of Operations

According again to Anyanwu et al., (2018) Dissolved organic carbons

(DOCs) in feedstock were varied by diluting with Milli-Q into (per liter): 954 mg

(undiluted control) as MFC 1, 477 mg as MFC 2, 95.4 mg as MFC 3, and 9.54

as MFC 4. As an oxidant, we will prepare a Cathodic buffer with a pre-

determined concentration of 500 µM (pH 6.8) with analytical-grade potassium

permanganate (KMnO4). Then 1 mL of PDWWs was injected into the anode

chambers for inoculation. We will connect the anode and the cathode using the

external resistor and current across the resistor and it will be monitored using a

data-acquisition system Agilent HP 34790. When the current will drop down to

below 0.005 mA, the solution will be supplemented with 1 mL of undiluted

PDWW as the sole organic substrate to recover current output.

5.) Operation of MFC reactors

Once a stable current was observed, the synthetic medium will be switched

to the desired PDWW concentration that will be buffered with 50 mM KH2PO4,

pH 7.0 (Jiang et al. 2009)

6.) Determination of anodic biomass density

Protein contents in the anode biofilms will be extracted to determine the

total microbial density on the anode surface

 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN DIAGRAM

Title: Electricity Generation Potential of Poultry Droppings Wastewater in Microbial Fuel

Cell Using Zea mays Cob (Corn cob) Charcoal Electrodes

Hypothesis: Poultry droppings wastewater in microbial fuel cell using zea mays cob

(corn cob) Charcoal Electrodes will generate electricity.

Independent Variable: The Different type of electrode used in each chamber.

These boxes show how the Using corn cob Charcoal Using Carbon Cloth

IV is Modified Electrodes Electrode

No. of Trials 1 1

Dependent Variable: Electricity generated by the MCF.

Constant variables: The Amount of Poultry Droppings Wastewater, Same type of bottle

used for the chambers, Temperature for carbonization.

Extraneous Variable: The quality of the corn cob, strength of the muffin furnace
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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