Patent attributes
Disclosed are anode electrode structures for microbial fuel cell (MFC) devices, systems and methods for treating wastewater and generating electrical energy through a bioelectrochemical waste-to-energy conversion process. In some aspects, an anode electrode includes a conductive core and a plurality of sheets of conductive textile material wound around the conductive core. In some aspects, the anode electrode is produced by cutting sheets of a conductive textile material to form a stem and a plurality of branches connected to the stem. The conductive textile material is pretreated to enhance the surface area, hydrophilicity, microbial attachment, and/or electrochemical activity of the conductive textile material. The sheets are stacked together and wound around a conductive core to produce the anode electrode. In implementations, the anode electrode can be used to transfer electrons removed from wastewater surrounding the branched electrode via an oxidation reaction on the electrode surface within the an MFC device.
