Research Projects

The acceleration of industrialization processes, along with an increase in global population, has led to the rise of two major issues: energy shortage and vast production of industrial effluents. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) based technologies are the most recent attempt to utilise microorganisms to generate power from wastewater. MFCs are known as bio-electrochemical transducers that have the unique ability to utilise the reduction power of microbial populations to generate electrical energy. Xenobiotics are substances that an organism is exposed to which is not the part of its regular metabolism. Many xenobiotics might reach dangerous levels if they are not broken down by metabolism. These hazardous chemicals can be metabolized simultaneously during the microbial metabolic process. Chlorinated phenols such as 2,4-dichlorophenol, tetrachlorophenol, and pentachlorophenol are widely employed in variety of industries. These compounds are released in the environment which become potentially hazardous and thus need to be removed from the system. There has not been much research into combining polyphenolic xenobiotic chemical bioremediation with power generation in a MFC system. Hence a complete integrated and sustainable process is required to neutralize the xenobiotic compounds and use it for the simultaneous production of energy. The designed and optimized MFCs could help us to develop economically feasible wastewater treatment process to reduce water pollution from various sources. In proposed study an attempt will be made to construct and optimized a MFCs that can help to establish a cost-effective wastewater treatment technique to reduce water pollution from various sources.