Practical Maximum-Power Extraction in Single Microbial Fuel Cell by Effective Delivery through Power Management System

Jeongjin Yeo,Taeyoung Kim,Jae Jang,Yoonseok Yang

doi:10.3390/en11092312

Jeongjin Yeo, Taeyoung Kim + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/en11092312

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Abstract

Power management systems (PMSs) are essential for the practical use of microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology, as they replace the unstable stacking of MFCs with step-up voltage conversion. Maximum-power extraction technology could improve the power output of MFCs; however, owing to the power consumption of the PMS operation, the maximum-power extraction point cannot deliver maximum power to the application load. This study proposes a practical power extraction for single MFCs, which reserves more electrical energy for an application load than conventional maximum power-point tracking (MPPT). When experimentally validated on a real MFC, the proposed method delivered higher output power during a longer PMS operation time than MPPT. The maximum power delivery enables more effective power conditioning of various micro-energy harvesting systems.

Highlights

IntroductionA microbial fuel cell (MFC) system is usually developed by stacking many small-sized unit cells in series or parallel configurations until the MFC meets the output power requirements.Such miniaturized implementation of electrochemical cells improves the bioelectric interactions, electron transfer and mass transport of the organic substrate, delivering higher power output than single bulk implementations [1,2].The maximum attainable MFC voltage is theoretically on the order of 1.1 V and an MFC delivers an output voltage below 1 volt when connected to a load resistance (closed-circuit voltage) [3].For practical use, the MFC voltage should be upconverted to the level compliant with most electric facilities.A series stack of single MFC’s is a simple and conventional way of converting the low-level output voltage to a higher level, but the voltages of individual cells cannot be controlled precisely or maintained constantly
The final output power delivered to the application load was determined by similar power to the Power management systems (PMSs) was calculated in real-time by measuring the voltage across Rin
This study proposed a practical power extraction for single microbial fuel cell (MFC), which reserved more electrical energy for an application load than conventional maximum power-point tracking (MPPT)

Summary

Introduction

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) system is usually developed by stacking many small-sized unit cells in series or parallel configurations until the MFC meets the output power requirements.Such miniaturized implementation of electrochemical cells improves the bioelectric interactions, electron transfer and mass transport of the organic substrate, delivering higher power output than single bulk implementations [1,2].The maximum attainable MFC voltage is theoretically on the order of 1.1 V and an MFC delivers an output voltage below 1 volt when connected to a load resistance (closed-circuit voltage) [3].For practical use, the MFC voltage should be upconverted to the level compliant with most electric facilities.A series stack of single MFC’s is a simple and conventional way of converting the low-level output voltage to a higher level, but the voltages of individual cells cannot be controlled precisely or maintained constantly. A microbial fuel cell (MFC) system is usually developed by stacking many small-sized unit cells in series or parallel configurations until the MFC meets the output power requirements. Such miniaturized implementation of electrochemical cells improves the bioelectric interactions, electron transfer and mass transport of the organic substrate, delivering higher power output than single bulk implementations [1,2]. Exactly matching the output voltage to the required value is a difficult task [4,5,6,7,8]

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Results

Conclusion