scholarly journals The Effect of Increasing Surface Area of Graphite Electrode on the Performance of Dual Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells

Author(s):  
Pedy Artsanti ◽  
Sudarlin Sudarlin ◽  
Eka Fadzillah Kirana

The effect of increasing surface area of graphite electrode on the performance of dual chamber Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) was observed. The surface area of graphite electrode (anode and cathode) that was using in this experiment was 29.5cm2 and 44.5cm2 for the A and B reactor, respectively. The anode chamber contained mixed microorganism culture from real wastewater of textile industry and the cathode chamber contained 0.1M potassium permanganate electrolyte solution. The salt bridge was required to stabilize the charge between the anode and cathode chambers, and the electrodes attached to the anode and cathode chambers as the electron catcher. Both, the A and B reactor were observed for 72 hours of running time. The voltage and power density were found to increase with the increase in surface area of the graphite electrode. The highest power density was 93.93mWm-2 and 197.23mWm-2 that obtained at 36 hours and 48 hours on the A and B reactor, respectively. At the end of experiment, these MFCs system could also reduce COD by 28.6% and 15.6% on A and B reactor, respectively.

Author(s):  
Yayah Luthfiah ◽  
Pedy Artsanti

The performance of electricity producing of Dual Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) using wastewater of tempe industries without glucose addition (as control substrate) and with (2% and 4%) glucose addition was observed. The anode chamber contained a waste substrate and a cathode chamber contained a 0.1 M Potassium Permanganate electrolyte solution. The salt bridge was required to stabilize the charge between the cathode and anode chambers, and the electrodes attached to the anode and cathode chambers as the electron catcher. Voltages and currents were measured using multimeter. Optical Density measured at 486 nm wavelengths was performed to estimate bacterial growth activity. All of the cells were observed for 72 hours of running time. The results of Optical Density curves showed an increasing trend of absorbance during 72 hours of running time. These were in agreement with the resulting power density, which tended to increase until the 48th hour and then relatively stable especially for the substrate with 4% glucose addition. These MFCs system could also reduce COD by 1.52%, 9.76%, and 9.64% on control substrate, 2% glucose addition substrate, and 4% glucose addition substrate, respectively.


Author(s):  
Jie Yang ◽  
Sasan Ghobadian ◽  
Reza Montazami ◽  
Nastaran Hashemi

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology is a promising area in the field of renewable energy because of their capability to use the energy contained in wastewater, which has been previously an untapped source of power. Microscale MFCs are desirable for their small footprints, relatively high power density, fast start-up, and environmentally-friendly process. Microbial fuel cells employ microorganisms as the biocatalysts instead of metal catalysts, which are widely applied in conventional fuel cells. MFCs are capable of generating electricity as long as nutrition is provided. Miniature MFCs have faster power generation recovery than macroscale MFCs. Additionally, since power generation density is affected by the surface-to-volume ratio, miniature MFCs can facilitate higher power density. We have designed and fabricated a microscale microbial fuel cell with a volume of 4 μL in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chamber. The anode and cathode chambers were separated by a proton exchange membrane. Carbon cloth was used for both the anode and the cathode. Shewanella Oneidensis MR-1 was chosen to be the electrogenic bacteria and was inoculated into the anode chamber. We employed Ferricyanide as the catholyte and introduced it into the cathode chamber with a constant flow rate of approximately 50 μL/hr. We used trypticase soy broth as the bacterial nutrition and added it into the anode chamber approximately every 15 hours once current dropped to base current. Using our miniature MFC, we were able to generate a maximum current of 4.62 μA.


Processes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorben Muddemann ◽  
Dennis Haupt ◽  
Bolong Jiang ◽  
Michael Sievers ◽  
Ulrich Kunz

This contribution describes the effect of the quality of the catalyst coating of cathodes for wastewater treatment by microbial fuel cells (MFC). The increase in coating quality led to a strong increase in MFC performance in terms of peak power density and long-term stability. This more uniform coating was realized by an airbrush coating method for applying a self-developed polymeric solution containing different catalysts (MnO2, MoS2, Co3O4). In addition to the possible automation of the presented coating, this method did not require a calcination step. A cathode coated with catalysts, for instance, MnO2/MoS2 (weight ratio 2:1), by airbrush method reached a peak and long-term power density of 320 and 200–240 mW/m2, respectively, in a two-chamber MFC. The long-term performance was approximately three times higher than a cathode with the same catalyst system but coated with the former paintbrush method on a smaller cathode surface area. This extraordinary increase in MFC performance confirmed the high impact of catalyst coating quality, which could be stronger than variations in catalyst concentration and composition, as well as in cathode surface area.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1289
Author(s):  
Madiha Tariq ◽  
Jin Wang ◽  
Zulfiqar Ahmad Bhatti ◽  
Muhammad Bilal ◽  
Adeel Jalal Malik ◽  
...  

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a recent biotechnology that can simultaneously produce electricity and treat wastewater. As the nature of industrial wastewater is very complex, and it may contain a variety of substrates—such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, etc.—previous investigations dealt with treatment of individual pollutants in MFCs; the potential of acetic acid, sucrose, albumin, blood, and their mixture has rarely been reported. Hence, the current investigation explored the contribution of each substrate, both separately and in mixture. The voltage generation potential, current, and power density of five different substrates—namely, acetic acid, sucrose, albumin, blood, and a mixture of all of the substrates—was tested in a dual-chambered, anaerobic MFC operated at 35 °C. The reaction time of the anaerobic batch mode MFC was 24 h, and each substrate was treated for 7 runs under the same conditions. The dual-chambered MFC consisted of anode and cathode chambers; the anode chamber contained the biocatalyst (sludge), while the cathode chamber contained the oxidizing material (KMnO4). The maximum voltage of 769 mV was generated by acetic acid, while its corresponding values of current and power density were 7.69 mA and 347.85 mW, respectively. Similarly, being a simple and readily oxidizable substrate, acetic acid exhibited the highest COD removal efficiency (85%) and highest Coulombic efficiency (72%) per run. The anode accepted the highest number of electrons (0.078 mmol/L) when acetic acid was used as a substrate. The voltage, current, and power density generated were found to be directly proportional to COD concentration. The least voltage (61 mV), current (0.61 mA), and power density (2.18 mW) were observed when blood was treated in the MFC. Further research should be focused on testing the interaction of two or more substrates simultaneously in the MFC.


Author(s):  
G. Shyamala ◽  
N. Saravanakumar ◽  
E. Vamsi Krishna

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) set a new trend of converting chemical energy or bio energy to electricity from wastewater (domestic and industries) at the same time removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) from the wastewater. Electrical energy generated from microbial fuel cell could be used for small electrical device example biosensors. The main components of MFCs are the anode, and the cathode salt bridge. It contains an anode chamber and a cathode chamber which separate electrodes for the production of electricity, using wastewater in an anaerobic chamber helps grow native microorganisms. Adding substrates increases productivity of the electrons that are moving from the anode chamber to the cathode chamber by help of the salt bridge. Bioreactors based on power generation in MFCs are a new approach to wastewater treatment. Power generation and current is modulated in this system. If it is optimised, MFCs would prove to be new method to offset wastewater treatment plant operating costs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 451-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Partha Sarathi Jana ◽  
Makarand Madhao Ghangrekar ◽  
Donal Leech

Fuels ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-178
Author(s):  
Marzia Quaglio ◽  
Daniyal Ahmed ◽  
Giulia Massaglia ◽  
Adriano Sacco ◽  
Valentina Margaria ◽  
...  

Sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) are energy harvesting devices where the anode is buried inside marine sediment, while the cathode stays in an aerobic environment on the surface of the water. To apply this SCMFC as a power source, it is crucial to have an efficient power management system, leading to development of an effective energy harvesting technique suitable for such biological devices. In this work, we demonstrate an effective method to improve power extraction with SMFCs based on anodes alternation. We have altered the setup of a traditional SMFC to include two anodes working with the same cathode. This setup is compared with a traditional setup (control) and a setup that undergoes intermittent energy harvesting, establishing the improvement of energy collection using the anodes alternation technique. Control SMFC produced an average power density of 6.3 mW/m2 and SMFC operating intermittently produced 8.1 mW/m2. On the other hand, SMFC operating using the anodes alternation technique produced an average power density of 23.5 mW/m2. These results indicate the utility of the proposed anodes alternation method over both the control and intermittent energy harvesting techniques. The Anode Alternation can also be viewed as an advancement of the intermittent energy harvesting method.


2021 ◽  
Vol 775 ◽  
pp. 145904
Author(s):  
Jaecheul Yu ◽  
Younghyun Park ◽  
Evy Widyaningsih ◽  
Sunah Kim ◽  
Younggy Kim ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 095016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Ren ◽  
Sriram Rangaswami ◽  
Hyung-Sool Lee ◽  
Junseok Chae

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