Design of air cathode bacterial fuel cell for sustainable power production and azo Congo red dye removal

This work has attempted to elaborate on the importance of bacterial fuel cells (BFCs) to remove azo dyes (Congo red) and electricity generation by depending on using mixed culture, agar salt bridge pipe membrane, and graphite plate electrode. It was noticed the effect of some parameters on biodegradation and energy i.e., agar salt bridge type, molarity concentration of salt, and temperature. Lab-scale air cathode-BFCs were working under the anaerobic condition on batch mode for 20 days, it was obtained high voltage output and removal efficiency at (type salt KCl, 1.5 M, and 30°C) was 1989mv and 95%, respectively, whereas the lowest percentage was at (NaCl .0.5M, and 40°C) and the research show variation in pH and EC for every parameter. Using mixed cultures is preferred for inoculation in BFCs due to cost-effectiveness and practical reasons in treatment. Artificial neural network (ANN) had been applied to find the most important parameters that affect on removal and electricity generation from AC-BFCs. It is observed that molarity plays a major role in voltage production (100%) followed by temperature 17.6%.