The selectivity of catalytic materials suitable for oxygen reduction potential of bio-electrochemical systems is very affluent. Therefore, exploring magnetite and static magnetic field as alternative option to promote microbial electron transfer comes in handy. In this study, the application of magnetite-nanoparticles and a static magnetic field on a microbial fuel cell (MFC) in anaerobic digestion was investigated. The experimental set-up included four 1 L biochemical methane potential tests: a) MFC, b) MFC with magnetite-nanoparticles (MFCM), c) MFC with magnetite-nanoparticles and magnet (MFCMM), and d) control. The highest biogas production obtained was 545.2 mL/g VSfed in the MFCMM digester, which was substantially greater than the 117.7 mL/g VSfed of the control. This was accompanied by high contaminant removals for chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 97.3%, total solids (TS) of 97.4%, total suspended solids (TSS) of 88.7%, volatile solids (VS) 96.1%, and color of 70.2%. The electrochemical efficiency analysis revealed greater maximum current density of 12.5 mA/m2 and coulombic efficiency of 94.4% for the MFCMM. Kinetically, the cumulative biogas produced data obtained were well fitted on the modified Gompertz models and the greatest coefficient of determination (R2 =0.990) was obtained in the MFCMM. Therefore, the application of magnetite-nanoparticles and static magnetic field on MFC showed a high potential for bioelectrochemical methane production and contaminant removal for sewage sludge.
Keywords: anaerobic digestion; bioelectrochemical; magnetite-nanoparticles; microbial fuel cell; static magnetic field.
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