Self-assembled oil palm biomass-derived modified graphene oxide anode: An efficient medium for energy transportation and bioremediating Cd (II) via microbial fuel cells

Abstract Although microbial fuel cells (MFCs) rank among the most promising bioelectrochemical approaches for generating energy while removing pollutants from wastewater, their relatively poor performance, largely due to electrode material that hinder their applicability, has limited their commercial viability. Thus, in our study, self-assembled modified graphene oxide (GO) anodes were developed from oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) biomass, and several techniques were applied to assess the physiochemical properties of material synthesized with waste material. Ultimately, the waste material was an excellent source for generating energy in the form of anodes in MFCs. The bioinspired modified GO anodes demonstrated greater energy output (135.96 mA/m2) of more than eight times the unmodified GO anodes (15.65 mA/m2), even though the source of inoculation was synthetic wastewater with 100 ppm of Cd (II) solution. To our knowledge, no work has reported removing Cd (II) from synthetic wastewater by using waste-derived anodes via MFCs. This paper reports on the utilization of waste-derived organic waste (oil palm trunk sap) as an organic substrate which is a healthy source of nutrients for bacteria in an inoculated media. Along with evidence of their electrochemical and biological character, the primary result achieved (i.e., 90% removal efficiency) supports using MFCs on an industrial scale.