Abstract

Comparative measure of electricity produced from benthic mud of FUTA junction and FUTA north gate in akure, ondo state, using microbial fuel cell was been studied. Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) is an energy generating source that aim at utilizing the oxidizing potential of bacteria for nutrient in soil. This was achieved by building the anode and cathode containers connected together by a salt bridge and an external circuit was made to transfer the electrons from the anode to the cathode. Four kg of benthic mud sample was collected from a stream at both FUTA junction and FUTA north gate, Akure into the anode container of the microbial fuel cell. Standard microbiological analysis was used to identify and isolate microorganisms present in the benthic mud. The voltage, current, concentration and pH were observed for 14 days (336 h). The control experiment was a sterilized benthic mud from same location which was monitored for 7 days. 5 g of salt was added to the salt water in the anode container every 24 hours which increase the concentration of the salt. The microorganisms isolated were shown at the two locations were Shewanella sp., Streptomyces sp., Pseudomons sp., Geotrichum candidum, Aspergillus sp. and Escherichia coli, Actinomycetes sp., Clostridium sp., Bacillus subtilis, Trichoderma sp. and Candida sp. for FUTA junction and FUTA north gate respectively. The highest microbial population, highest voltage and current which were observed at FUTA junction benthic mud. They were 3.42 × 103 to 1.34 × 103 and 1.70 × 103 to 2.70 × 103, voltage and current of 120.3 v at 240 h (10th day) and 5 amps at 336 h (14th day) for population, voltage and current respectively. The control experiment with no microbial population which resulted in the low voltage and current generated show that microorganism play a major role in the generation of the current. It is concluded that a microbial fuel cell with benthic mud as substrate can generate electricity. Therefore, it is a form of bioenergy that can be exploited to reduce the effect of utilizing non-renewable fuel for energy.

Keywords: Electricity; Energy; Microbial; Fuel cell