THP IPB Students Generate Electricity from Bacteria
The potential of industry has contributed to the Indonesian economy through the goods and services produced. However, on the other hand, industrial growth has caused quite serious environmental problems. Industrial wastewater discharge causes river and sea water pollution which can damage the environment and reduce the quality of life.
Efforts to prevent environmental impacts have been carried out by industry, one of which is through the implementation of wastewater treatment installations. However, this requires expensive construction and operational costs, so many industries think twice about building their own wastewater treatment installations. Wastewater treatment by industry only adds to expenses without providing benefits from the waste for the company.
Departing from this problem, Fajar Syahreza, a student of the Department of Aquatic Product Technology, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPIK) Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) was moved to conduct research, namely applying Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology to the process of processing fishery liquid waste that can produce electrical energy.
The title of the research is “Microbial Fuel Cells Performance in Liquid Waste Processing with Chitosan/PVA Polymer Mixture Membrane Separator.” The research was conducted under the guidance of Dr. Bustami Ibrahim and Dr. Pipih Suptijah.
“MFC is a technology that utilizes bacteria to generate electricity by decomposing organic material. Liquid fishery waste itself is liquid waste with a high organic content, so it can be used as a substrate in MFC, said Fajar.
The way MFC works in generating electricity is that the bacteria in the MFC substrate will decompose organic material in liquid waste into a food source for it. The organic material that has been broken down will form ions. These ions then become a source of electrical energy that is utilized through MFC bacteria.
In his research, Fajar used wastewater from the pindang processing industry. He also added a separator to improve performance in generating electrical energy. The separator consists of chitosan material which has high ionic conductivity and low mechanical ability, mixed with Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) which has low ionic resistance and high mechanical ability. “The addition of chitosan/PVA mixed polymer is expected to increase electron recovery, thus having an impact on increasing electricity, he said.
Based on his research, Fajar concluded that the organic content in liquid waste processed using MFC can produce electrical energy and reduce the waste load, so it is safe to be emitted into the environment.
He hopes that the results of his research can provide information on waste processing technology with MFC using chitosan/PVA polymer separators and the electricity produced. He also hopes that research related to MFC can be a concern for students who will conduct research and can be further developed. (NIRS/NM)
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