Study of electrode modification and microbial concentration for microbial fuel cell effectivity from molasses waste and reduction of heavy metal Cr (VI) by continue dual chamber reactor

The rapid growth of textile industry has resulted in increasing amounts of heavy metal chromium waste. Metal waste production reaches 80% of the total amount of water used in the batik process. Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is a promising alternative because of its ability to reduce metal waste Cr⁶⁺ while processing organic waste and producing bioelectric. In addition, molasses still contain 50-60% sugar which has the potential to be degraded. Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 was used in this research due to its high productivity. MFC used dual chamber continue to optimize the process. The objective of this research is to analyze the effect of carbon modification and bacterial concentration on MFC electricity production, reduction of Cr⁶⁺ and reduction of BOD. Carbon electrode was modified with rice husks and strong acid-base to improve MFC performance. The higher concentration of bacteria and modification of electrodes could produce greater electricity and can reduce more hexavalent chromium metal Cr⁶⁺ also able to reduce the most optimum BOD. Variable of 10¹¹ cells/mL bacteria with electrode modification produced the best performance by producing electricity that was relatively more stable and the most optimum with total power density of 690.9mW/m², reduced heavy metals Cr⁶⁺ to Cr³⁺ up to 92.78% and BOD removal of 33.11%.