Electricity generation using high concentration terephthalic acid solution by microbial fuel cell

The high concentration terephthalic acid (TA) solution as the substrate of microbial fuel cell(MFC) was studied to generate electricity. The open circuit voltage was 0.54 V after inoculating for 210 h with anaerobic activated sludge, which proved that TA can be the substrate of microbial fuel cell to generate electricity. The influence of pH and substrate concentration on generating electricity was studied deeply. The voltage output of external resistance(R = 1000 H) was the highest when pH was 8.0. It increased as the substrate concentration increasing and tended towards a maximum value. The maximum voltage output U_max was 0.5 V and K₈ was 785.2 mg/L by Monod equation regression. When the substrate concentration (according to COD) was 4000 mg/L, the maximum power density was 96.3 mW/m², coulomb efficiency was 2.66% and COD removal rate was 80.3%.