Electricity Production Potential of Decayed Tectona grandis Using Microbial Fuel Cell

Abstract

The potential of decayed Tectona grandis wood to generate current and voltage due to the inherent microorganism present in it was determined in this study. The decayed wood was collected from the Federal University of Technology Akure forest plantation. Microorganisms were isolated from the decayed Tectona grandis wood and the organisms were identified using both cultural and molecular methods. The microbial fuel experimental set up was carried out for 14 days. The microbial fuel cell was made up of two chambers which are the anodic i.e where bacteria oxidise the organic matter present in the wood and cathodic chamber, this contained the substrate (decayed wood) and water respectively. Current and voltage generated by the decayed wood was measured using a multimeter. Results revealed that the microorganisms isolated include Bacillus licheniformis, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus sp, Acinetobacter iwoffii Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas putida, Bacillus thuringiensis, Penicillum notantum, Rhizopus stolonifer, Aspergillus penicilloides, Rhizopus oryzae and Aspergillus flavus. It also showed that there was a continuous increase in the current generated which was within the range from (0.032 ± 0.00 to 0.441 ± 0.02) mA. The highest voltage was generated on day 12 with the value (0.369 ± 0.02) mV. It was shown that there was a progressive increase in the voltage generated from day 1 to day 12 with the range of values from 0.023 ± 0.01 to 0.369 ± 0.02) mV. Findings from this study affirmed that decayed Tectona grandis wood has the ability to generate current and voltage using microbial fuel cell due to the microorganisms present in them which initiate oxidation reaction.