Improving dye degradation in microbial fuel cell by augmenting Pseudomonas aeruginosa and its pigment Pyocyanin to the anodic inoculum

Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) can efficiently use and generate energy from organic waste, particularly using wastewater (WW). By harnessing the metabolic activity of microorganisms (MOs), MFC generates electricity. Various prevailing studies were available on MFC regarding the enrichment of MFC for its proper functioning. Nevertheless, only limited research has been carried out on analysing the impact of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) on MFC for the degradation of azo dyes like Methylene blue. Hence, the impact of augmentation of P. aeruginosa in dual chamber MFC to efficiently degrade the azo dye Methylene blue is concentrated in the research. The strain of P. aeruginosa has been extracted from the anaerobic sludge gathered from industry. The P. aeruginosa is recognized via gram staining, biochemical characterization, and molecular characterization. In addition, Pyocyanin (Mediator) is extracted using chloroform from P. aeruginosa. The Coulombic Efficiency (CE) of MFC-Pseudomonas (MFC-P) is found to be 19.3%, followed by MFC-Mediator (MFC-M) (14.8%) and MFC-Control (MFC-C) (12.4%). The MFC-P produces more power owing to the improved electrochemical activity. Within the MFC, the methylene blue dye is found to remain 4 h to decolorize. As per the findings, P. aeruginosa and its pigment pyocyanin improve the performance of MFCs and azo dye degradation significantly and this method can be used for further bioremediation strategies.