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Performance evaluation of Epipremnum aureum plant-based microbial fuel cell using composite anode made up of carbonized corncob and carbon rod

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Abstract

The plant microbial fuel cell (PMFC) is the emerging technology that uses the photosynthetic reaction of plants to generate renewable and sustainable bio-electricity. In the present work, Epipremnum aureum plant was used to produce clean and sustainable bio-energy in a PMFC. The synergistic effect of the composite anode made up of carbonized corncob and the carbon rod on the electricity generation and plant growth was observed. The maximum power output of the PMFC with the composite carbonized corncob-carbon rod anode was 73.73 mW/m2 which is much higher than the power output of PMFC with the plain carbon rod anode of 0.71 mW/m2. High growth of the plant may be attributed to increase in the plant microbial interaction in the rhizosphere region which facilitates the transport of nutrients and exchange of electrons between the plant and the electrode. Therefore, the composite carbonized corncob anode could be coupled with the higher generation of bioelectricity within 35 working days.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kashi Institute of Technology, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, 221307, India

    Kumar Sonu & Shital Chandra Pandey

  2. Department of Biosciences, Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan, 303007, India

    Monika Sogani, Zainab Syed & Jayana Rajvanshi

Authors
  1. Kumar Sonu
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  2. Monika Sogani
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  3. Zainab Syed
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  4. Jayana Rajvanshi
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  5. Shital Chandra Pandey
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Contributions

KS: visualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, writing—original draft preparation. MS: conceptualization, investigation, writing—original draft preparation, writing—reviewing and editing, supervision, project administration. ZS: data curation, formal analysis, writing—original draft preparation. JR: data curation, formal analysis, writing—original draft preparation. SCP: visualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis.

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Correspondence to Monika Sogani.

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Highlights

• Sustainable design of plant microbial fuel cell (PMFC) using Epipremnum aureum plant.

• Low-cost composite anode of carbonized corncob and carbon rod integrated in a PMFC.

• Power density of 73.73 mW/m2 achieved which is among the best in recent PMFC studies.

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Sonu, K., Sogani, M., Syed, Z. et al. Performance evaluation of Epipremnum aureum plant-based microbial fuel cell using composite anode made up of carbonized corncob and carbon rod. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 14, 5149–5156 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-02794-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-02794-6

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