Plant Microbial Fuel Cell in Paddy Field: a Power Source for Rural Area”

PROPOSITIONS 1. Co-production of electricity and food is possible by a tubular Plant-MFC in a paddy field. (This thesis) 2. The battery function of the Plant-MFC should be exploited since the electricity price cannot keep-up with developments on other renewable electricity sources. (This Thesis) 3. Demanding a sustainable lifestyle without providing assistance to people who do not know whether they can eat or not on the next day is killing them. 4. Comparing economic feasibility of things is futile as long as we keep creating new grand challenges over and over again. 5. Honesty rather than economic growth is the prime capital for human development. 6. Pursuing a PhD journey is like finding a route to hike a mountaintop. 7. Useless things do not exists as value comes with time, place and consciousness. Propositions belonging to the thesis, entitle “Plant Microbial Fuel Cell in Paddy Field: a power source for rural area” Emilius Sudirjo Wageningen, 12 February 2020 Plant Microbial Fuel Cell in Paddy Field: a power source for rural area Emilius Sudirjo Thesis committee Promotor Prof. Dr C.J.N. Buisman Professor of Biological Recovery and Re-Use Technology Wageningen University & Research Co-promotor Dr D.P.B.T.B. Strik Associate professor, Environmental Technology Wageningen University & Research Other members Prof. Dr MHM Eppink, Wageningen University & Research Dr D Pant, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium Dr M Helder, Plant-e, B.V, Wageningen Dr J Arends, Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology (CMET), Ghent University, Belgium This research was conducted under the auspices of the Graduate School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environmental (SENSE) Plant Microbial Fuel Cell in Paddy Field: a power source for rural area Emilius Sudirjo Thesis Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor at Wageningen University by the autority of the Rector Magnificus, Prof. Dr A.P.J. Mol, in the presence of the Thesis Committee appointed by the Academic Board to be defended in public on Wednesday 12 February 2020 at 01.30 p.m. in the Aula Emilius Sudirjo Plant Microbial Fuel Cell in Paddy Field: a power source for rural area, 222 pages PhD thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands (2020) With references, with summaries in English, Indonesia, and Balangin ISBN: 978-94-6395-191-3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18174/505263 ADIL KA’TALINO, BACURAMIN KA’SARUGA, BASENGAT KA’JUBATA For my parents, wife and son Table of Contents Chapter 1 General introduction 9 Chapter 2 Marine sediment mixed with activated carbon allows electricity production and storage from internal and external sources: a new rechargeable bio battery exploiting bi-directional electron transfer properties 23 Chapter 3 Activated Carbon mixed with marine sediment suits as bioanode material for Spartina anglica Sediment/Plant Microbial Fuel Cells: plant growth, electricity generation and spatial microbial community diversity 55 Chapter 4 Performance and Long Distance Data Acquisition via LoRa 95 Technology of a Tubular Plant Microbial Fuel Cell Located in a Paddy Field in West Kalimantan, Indonesia Chapter 5 A Thin Layer of Activated Carbon Deposited on Polyurethane Cube Leads to New Conductive Bioanode for (Plant) Microbial Fuel Cell 135 Chapter 6 General Discussion 167 References 191 Summary/Ikhtisar/Isi Ringkas 209 Acknowledgments 215 Curriculum Vitae 217 List of Publications 219 SENSE Diploma 220 Chapter 2, 3, and 4 have been published as peer-reviewed scientific articles and Chapter 5 is under reviewed in a peer-reviewed journal. The text, figures and tables of the published and submitted articles have been adjusted to the PhD thesis format. References should be made to the original articles. Chapter 1 General Introduction Chapter 1 General Introduction 9 General Introduction Chapter 1 1.1 Electricity in rural area is not equally distributed Electricity is one of most efficient energy carriers[1,2] and has become an important driver for modern human lifestyle [3]. Electricity can be used directly with very high efficiency[2]. According to International Energy Agency (IEA), modern economies depend on reliable and affordable delivery of electricity[4]. Access to modern energy such as electricity is an important aspect of human development; there is a positive correlation between electricity consumption per capita (in kWh) and human development index (HDI) and also gross domestic product(GDP) from 120 countries [5]. Electricity can be generated both from fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) and renewable energy sources [6]. Renewable energy includes all energy sources that are continually replenished by nature and derived directly from the sun (e.g. thermal, photo-chemical, and photo-electric), indirectly from the sun (e.g. wind, hydropower, and photosynthetic energy stored in biomass), or from other natural phenomena (e.g. geothermal nuclear heat from earth core and tidal energy (moon)) [7]. Current world electricity generation is still dominated by fossil fuel sources (~70% of total generation)[6]. These conventional energy sources (based on oil, coal, and natural gas) have successfully driven modern economic progress [7]. However, the excessive fossil fuel consumption causes negative impact on the environment, increased health risk and global climate change [6–8]. A life cycle assessment on emissions has shown that CO2 emission per generated power (kWh) is higher in the conventional systems of electricity generation (i.e. 975.3 g-CO2/kWh for coal, 742.1 g-CO2/kWh for Oil, and 607.6 g-CO2/kWh for gas) compared to the one of renewable systems (i.e. 9.7-123.7 g-CO2/kWh for Wind, 53.4-250 for solar PV, 35-178 g-CO2/kWh for biomass, 13.6-202 for solar thermal, and 3.7-237 g- CO2/kWh for hydro) [9]. Therefore, it is important to shift from conventional energy sources to low- carbon renewable electricity sources [10]. Global policies have shown a promising political will toward energy by the adoption of United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of 2030 Agenda to ensure access to affordable, sustainable and modern energy for all humans [11]. As an UN’ member, Indonesia also takes action in such policy to reduce its dependency on fossil fuel energy sources. In its national energy plan, Indonesia aims to increase new and renewable energy in its energy mix from 5% in 2015 to >23% in 2025 and >31% in 2050 [12]. In the third quartile 2018, 12.32% electricity in Indonesia was generated from renewable energy sources [13]. It is almost impossible to imagine that nowadays people are living without electricity, especially in a city. For instance the effect to a city of a one day electricity cut off shows a high dependence on electricity; computer and lifts stop function; hospital sink to a care and maintenance level; and the 10 Chapter 1 General Introduction lights go out [3]. The world electrification is not equally distributed[11]. While people in developed countries are enjoying electricity for their modern life style, hundreds of millions of people in rural areas in developing countries do not have access to electricity. According to International Energy Agency, an estimated 1.1 billion people (14% of the global population) do not have access to electricity [11]. About 84% of those without electricity access live in rural areas and more than 95% of those living without electricity are in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (Figure 1. 1 ). Figure 1. 1 : Population without access to electricity, 2016. Logarithmic legend shows number of population (in millions); white colour means either all population have access to electricity or data were not reported (non-IEA member countries) 1.1.1 Electrification in Indonesia As an archipelagic country of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited), electrification is a big challenge for Indonesia. In addition, according to a 2017 count, Indonesia population is 260,580,739 people, making it the world’s fourth most populous nation after China, India and United States [14]. By 2018, medium voltage power distribution network (15-30 kV) and low voltage power distribution network (<6 kV) in Indonesia is 389,054.94 km and 953,560.46 km, respectively [15]. However, half of this distribution grid is located in Java Island. Despite national electrification ratio significantly increased (Table 1. 1) from 80.51% in 2013 to 98.3% in 2018, its distribution (in provincial levels) is unequally 11 General Introduction Chapter 1 distributed ranging from 61.9 to 99.9%. From 66,921,705 electrified households in 2018, 2.43% of them have off-grid supplied electricity[15]. Table 1. 1: Indonesia electrification ratio from 2013 until 2018 Source: Indonesia Electricity Statistics 2018 [15] 1.1.2 Typical electricity usage in rural areas of Indonesia It is well-known that the lack of opportunity to access modern energy such as electricity is one of poverty aspects that needs to be tackled [5]. Access to electricity enable people to have economic opportunities for income generation, to save their time from time-consuming drudgery activities , and to have more enjoyable or educational activities [5]. In an area without electricity, people’s activities are limited by the availability of day light, for instance a school cannot be started at early morning or late at night [16]. A study has shown that the first gained electricity for people in rural area is for lighting, communication (e.g. mobile phone) and a variety of educational delivery opportunities [17]. One of most obvious examples for electricity use is lighting. The need for light has been started long time ago in human history. The first record which shows humans were able to burn oil in lamps emerged more than 4500 years ago in Ur, an ancient city in southern Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) [18].

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