Importance of Mixed culture in Generation of Electricity from Anaerobically Digested Distillery Wastewater through Microbial fuel cell

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a device which converts chemical energy directly into electrical energy using microorganisms. MFC is becoming very important green biotechnological tool to generate clean energy simultaneously treating waste. Any organic biodegradable matter can be used as feed for microorganisms that has capacity to generate electrons and protons through their metabolism, thus help in generation of electricity. In this research, two chambered MFC has been used to treat anaerobically digested distillery wastewater (ADDW). ADDW generally goes to lagoons for further degradation and hence ADDW becomes ideal for extraction of further energy. Aerobes and anaerobes were isolated from ADDW and checked for the activity in MFC. Endogenous microbial consortium was found to be playing important role in generation of electricity as individual isolates failed to show the activity. Mixed consortia could generate 92.25±28.6 mW/m3 power with reduction of 50% TOC within 48 hrs. Thus mixed culture proved to be useful in