Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Novel membrane less bioreactor designs for understanding electro-microbiological circuits |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Focus area : | Environmental Biotechnology, Bioengineering |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Mahidhara VNL Ganesh, Gandhi Institute Of Technology And Management (Gitam), Andhra Pradesh |
Timeline Start Year : | 2023 |
Timeline End Year : | 2026 |
Contact info : | gmahidha@gitam.edu |
Details
Executive Summary : | Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are infant but promising bioreactor technology, which could be operated as a carbon neutral process for wastewater treatment with simultaneous generation of electricity. Hence, addressing present day fuel crises, as well as global warming issues could be achieved by such renewable bioenergy technologies. MFCs use microorganisms (termed as electrogens) as catalysts to convert organic substrates into electricity. Electrogens brilliantly carriages electrons to insoluble electron acceptors, with alternative electron transport pathway. Lack of understanding about electrogenic bacterial metabolomics and the type of organic matter they degrade; costs of membrane aided MFCs and internal resistances of the membrane less MFCs are existing limitations of present day MFCs. These issues could be addressed with i. extensive research in metabolomic studies of electrogenic bacteria; ii. introducing certain physical modifications in the bioreactor such as reducing the space between electrodes with novel bioreactor designs. If the distance between anode and cathode is increased during the MFC design, power outshoots occur as a result of increased internal resistances. In order to overcome this phenomenon, artificial membranes are placed between anode and cathode to keep them close together and to avoid short-circuits. Nevertheless, usage of membranes would drastically increase the cost of MFCs. Therefore, a membrane less bioreactor design would be more economical for sustainable applications. Although oxygen diffusion to the anode chamber is seen in a single chambered MFC compared to a double chambered design, single chambered MFCs are more economical. They have reduced setup costs and show increased power outputs. So, it would be more efficient to construct a single chambered fuel cell designs with reduced oxygen diffusion to anode. Various barriers including mass transfer, activation and ohmic losses hinders rate of bacterial electron transfer to anode, resulting drop in electrogenicity. Removing the impurities of the electrode surface and/or to increase the active area would overcome such kind of losses. Approaches like development of bio-inspired nano sensors could be adopted for the development of new generation electrode material. Rational improvements for power production in MFCs discussed in this proposal embraces cyclic manoeuvre of 3 objectives. They include i. mining of potent electrogenic micro-organisms using autoclavable lab-scale MFCs; ii. their metabolomic studies to decode anolyte choices and/or new co-culturing methods. iii. designing membrane less scaled up MFCs, to inoculate synthetic consortia, obtained from objectives i and ii. Thus, continuous polishing and further fine-tuning of all these 3 objectives would accomplish cost-effective MFCs. This also help in identification of sustainable feedstock coming from wastes like industrial effluents, that are rich in organic acids, aiding in circular economy. |
Total Budget (INR): | 26,64,460 |
Organizations involved