An innovative step to fabricate biomass-derived reduced graphene oxide electrodes to boost energy efficiency with metal removal using an electrochemical approach

To remove the inorganic pollutant along with electricity generation is an ideal electrochemical approach, which is recognized as microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Due to its dual function, this study topic has received a lot of interest lately. It has not been industrialized yet, however, because of a number of issues. Low electron generation and transportation pose serious challenges. To solve this, this research uses biomass waste for anode fabrication and organic substrate (oil palm sap). The reduced graphene oxide (rGO) material is synthesized by using biomass waste to fabricate the anode. The commercial graphite was also used as a control operation in this study. At a constant 1000 Ω external resistance, the commercial graphite anode supplied 1.84 mW/m², whereas the rGO delivered 6.84 mW/m² in 60 days with 333.3 Ω internal resistance. The specific capacitance (0.00021 F/g on day 60) and electrochemical studies demonstrated a mature biofilm and strong electron transport. The metal removal efficiency of rGO is more than 90% for Pb²⁺. Overall, the step to modify the biomass into rGO was successful. Finally, metal removal, substrate oxidation, and future suggestions are briefly discussed.