Microbial fuel cells with yeast biofilms anode and buckypaper cathode

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are expected to be the next green energy systems, which can harvest chemical energy existing in domestic waste. In this research, a two-chambered microbial fuel cell (MFC) was developed. On the anode side, an activated carbon-based electrode with biofilms of yeast cells was used as the anode. On the cathode side, potassium ferricyanide was used as catholyte, and buckypaper (BP) was used as the cathode electrode. Many researchers made BP by the chemical vapor deposition method, which is high-cost. In this research, the vacuum filtration method was used to reduce the fabrication cost of BP. The power density of the MFCs using different cathode materials was compared: (1) 2.8 µW/cm2 of carbon sheet, (2) 3.2 µW/cm2 of carbon sheet-coated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and (3) 4.3 µW/cm2 of two-layer BP. Based on the experimental results, the surface area of BP might be much larger than that of the carbon sheet-coated CNTs.