Enhancement of Voltage Generation Using Isolated Dissimilatory Iron-Reducing (DIR) Bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae in Microbial Fuel Cell

Microbial fuel cell is a renewable and sustainable technology for simultaneous oxidation of organic matter and electricity generation. The present study utilizes sequential optimization strategy of media components for voltage enhancement in microbial fuel cell exercising Klebsiella pneumoniae , a fermentative bacterium for the bioelectricity generation. Taguchi model screened the significant factors that are KH 2 PO 4 , glucose and asparagine which significantly influences the voltage generation. A second-order polynomial equation was created to correlate the relationship between independent variables and open-circuit voltage yield. These factors were further optimized using central composite design of response surface methodology and the optimal concentration for KH 2 PO 4 , glucose and asparagine were found to be 0.33172, 28.91 and 5.3750 g/l, respectively. Under optimal media components, voltage yield of 985mV (highest reported till date) was observed showing an increment of 16.844% with respect to un-optimized media. Statistical optimization and Klebsiella pneumoniae together has been employed for the first time in microbial fuel cell.