[Power generation from pyridine and glucose using microbial fuel cell]

Different organics have different effects on the power generation of microbial fuel cell. A packing-type MFC was constructed to investigate organic matter degradation and power generation. Experiments were conducted using an initial pyridine concentration of 500 mg/L with different glucose concentrations (500, 250, and 100 mg/L) as the MFC fuel. Results showed that maximum voltages decreased with the decrease of concentration of glucose and the maximum voltage was 623 mV. The cycle time were 49.5, 25.7, 25.2 h respectively. Correspondingly, the maximal volumetric power densities were 48.5, 36.2, 15.2 W/m3. Pyridine removal rate reached 95% within 24 h using MFC, which was not affected by concentration of glucose. Power generation using glucose was not affected in the presence of high concentration of pyridine. However, the phenomenon of electricity production was not obvious when using 500 mg/L pyridine as sole fuel. The results clearly demonstrated the feasibility of using the MFC to generate electricity when using pyridine and glucose mixture as fuel and simultaneously enhanced pyridine degradation.