Development Of Microbial Fuel Cells Research Articles

Development of Microbial Fuel Cell in Tofu Liquid Waste in Producing Clean Energy

The high need of Indonesian people for electrical energy has led to an increase in energy demand. This has triggered research efforts based on renewable technologies that are efficient and environmentally friendly. One of the renewable energy sources that is widely developed is Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC). MFC works by utilizing organic matter used by microbes as an energy source in carrying out metabolic activities. This study aims to determine the effect of Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli bacteria with different concentrations of 10% (v/v) and 15% (v/v) on the electrical energy generated from the tofu liquid waste substrate and observe changes in pH and Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) in the MFC system. This research method consists of several steps, namely the preparation of electrolysis equipment, electrodes, substrates, bacterial cultures, electrolytes and MFC processes. The maximum value of voltage and current in Bacillus subtilis bacteria occurred at the 10 hours with 15% (v/v) bacterial concentration which amounted to 394 mV and 10.6 mA with a bacterial population of 16.15 × 109 CFU/mL and a power density value of 126.67 × 10-4 watt/m2. Furthermore, the maximum value for Escherichia coli bacteria occurred at the 10 hours with a voltage and current of 266 mV and 5.3 mA with a bacterial population of 15.60 × 109 CFU/mL and a power density value of 55.67 × 10-4 watts/m2. The pH value of the substrate variations with the addition of Bacillus subtilis bacteria ranged from 5-6, while with the addition of Escherichia coli bacteria variations ranged from 4-5. This system also reduces the value of biological oxygen demand.

Technologies and potential behind microbial fuel cells

The development of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology has progressed greatly in the past few decades to the point where it can now be considered viable in certain industries. MFCs are cells that utilize microorganisms as catalysts to transform wastes into electrical energy, this new type of bioenergy can generate energy as well as decompose the wastes produced from industries and daily life. This article provides an overview of MFC’s properties, factors influencing the performance of MFCs, recent applications and prospects of MFCs, and the advantages and weaknesses of MFCs. Biofouling and waste debris from reaction inside the cell as well as not suitable pH value will cause significant degrade in performance of MFCs, at the same time, magnetic field and environmental temperature can help improve MFCs’ performance if utilized properly. Compared to other bioenergy technologies, MFCs do not need intensive heat and the cost of reaction materials is extremely low, nevertheless, the low energy output, relatively short life span, and high cost of materials building MFC itself are still barriers challenging MFCs to be widely adopted. Recently, MFCs are utilized in various areas, they are available for both electricity and hydrogen production, and they can deal with waste treatment or bioremediation at the same time. This paper aims at finding solutions to the existing problems of MFCs and exploring a wider range of areas that MFCs can be utilized.

Design and Development of Microbial Fuel Cells Based Low Power Energy Harvesting Mechanism for Ecological Monitoring and Farming of Agricultural Applications

Energy harvesting from the microbial fuel cells have a significant attention in the recent days, due to their cost efficiency, simple designing structure and self-powered system. Also, the emergence of internet of things plays a vital role in many real time application scenarios like agricultural purposes and activities. But, the incorporation of these techniques is one of challenging and interesting tasks in the research field. In the conventional works, the internet of things has been utilized as a cloud storage domain for activating the sensors used for environmental monitoring and controlling purposes. The main intention of this paper is to design a robust and cost-effective sludge water based microbial fuel cells, and utilize it for an internet of things incorporated ecological monitoring and farming applications by activating the smart sensors. It discusses about the various electrode combination with several mixture of substrate to study about the optimum performance of microbial fuel cells. To ease the comparative study, Thing Speak platform is used along with the necessary sensors for continuous monitoring. In addition to that, the efficiency of single and dual chamber microbial fuel cell is analyzed based on the set of parameters such as cost, size, and construction. In this work, the microbial fuel cell-based energy harvesting scheme is also developed with switched capacitance-based metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor and relay-based charge pump circuit which can be incorporated to the internet of things based agriculture applications. Here, the cost analysis of microbial fuel cell with and without DC–DC converter have been compared for selecting the most suitable one for the application system. Moreover, the digital temperature and humidity sensor can be utilized with the proposed microbial fuel cell system for gathering the inputs of the ecological system, which acts as an interface of the microbial fuel cell and cloud systems. During experimentation, the results of both the energy harvesting schemes are evaluated and compared by using various performance indicators.

Development of Microbial Fuel Cell as a Contribution to Renewable Energy Sources

Renewable energy plays an important role in future energy planning. Due to the changes in environment, shortage of fossil fuel, increase in carbon foot printing and the rising demand of sustainable energy generation there is a need of new energy generation resources and research. Hence, the main aim of proposed research is to develop microbial fuel cell for clean energy generation. There is a need of alternative energy sources with less cost to meet the future energy demands. Also, the waste management is a bigger issue around the globe. As Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) are less expensive and are with zero carbon foot printing it is considered as an emerging clean and alternative mean of energy generation. Also, the waste management is becoming important issue. To utilize waste material for energy generation is possible with bacteria present in waste material. The proposed research tested microbial fuel cell for household waste with use of carbon cloth electrodes. This paper presents the microbial fuel cell processes for different types of waste materials and pilot project execution is successful in terms of energy generation. The aim of the development of duel chamber microbial fuel cell is to contribute to the household electrification at pilot project level and further to that analyze the feasibility for future enhancements. The paper discusses the detail execution methodology for efficient use of waste materials in semi-solid and liquid form. The proposed research will be very useful as a source of renewable energy. More precisely, in future it is possible to generate independent household electrification with such options.

The Development of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) By Haplusterts Soil (Samo - Thod Series)

In this paper, we investigated on simultaneous electric energy production and organic matter was removed from synthetic wastewater by Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs). Single chamber MFCs was made up by Haplusterts great group soil (Samo - Thod soil group) in trial design 3 x 3 factorial design in Completely Randomize Design (CRD) which 3 levels synthetic wastewater; 0, 200 and 400 mg/l of glucose and 3 levels of flooding time: 1, 3 and 5 days. The results showed the interaction significant with decreasing sugar from synthesis wastewater and Open Circuit Voltage (OCV). The maximum OCV of 200 and 400 mg/l of glucose in 3 flooding days were 131 and 142 mV and decreasing to 110 and 126 mV in 5 flooding days, respectively. The highest percent of decreased glucose approached to 80% in 5 flooding days of 0.4 g/l of glucose. The findings suggested that not only MFCs were a significantly to reduce organic matter in wastewater but also generated electric energy in the same time.

Development of Microbial Fuel Cells Utilizing Glycerol as a Sole Carbon Source

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) system to generate electric power from glycerol, a by-product generated in the production process of biodiesel, was developed using microbes utilizing glycerol as a carbon source. Microorganisms utilizing glycerol as a sole carbon source were isolated from the soil and waterfront environments. Finally, five microbes which were able to grow up in the medium containing 10 % glycerol were obtained and examined to generate electric power from glycerol in our MFC system. Three of the five microbes showed electric power generation. Especially, Isolate 1 showed the greatest values of maximum power output, 0.102 mW/cm2, in the presence of 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphoquinone as a mediator. Isolate 1 showed higher maximum power value when using glycerin as a substrate than glucose, suggesting that electron transfer to the electrode by the mediator is a rate limiting step of MFC performance rather than substrate degradation.

O206 有機性廃水および生澱粉等のバイオマスを直接燃料とする微生物燃料電池の開発(セッション2:技術～生物化学～,口頭発表)

O206 有機性廃水および生澱粉等のバイオマスを直接燃料とする微生物燃料電池の開発(セッション2:技術～生物化学～,口頭発表)

Challenges and opportunities of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) technology development in Indonesia

Indonesian government has committed to realize the goals of sustainable development in the field of energy as stipulated in Government Regulation Number 79/2014 on national energy policy. A feasibility study of the utilization of alternative energy is important for developing countries like Indonesia. It is expected to reduce dependence on fossil fuel use and meet the energy needs on rural areas in Indonesia. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is a potential source of electrical energy from waste that is rich in organic matter. Trends in research and development of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) technology are increasing every year due to great opportunity to address a wide range of issues related to renewable energy needs, restoration of contaminated environment, water treatment electricity generators in remote areas and many more. MFCs can be used to treat domestic waste, biomass, algae, landfill leachate, agricultural runoff, and industrial waste. MFCs technology is a technology solution for cheap, fast, simple. MFCs use of technical challenges including low electricity production, current instability, and high internal resistance. Many challenges must be address, including a more detailed analysis in energy production, consumption, and application, understanding the relationship between the amount of electricity and contaminant removal, promoting the elimination of nutrients and optimizing system configuration and operations.

Cover Picture: The Role of Microfabrication and Nanotechnology in the Development of Microbial Fuel Cells (Energy Technol. 10/2015)

Cover Picture: The Role of Microfabrication and Nanotechnology in the Development of Microbial Fuel Cells (Energy Technol. 10/2015)

The Role of Microfabrication and Nanotechnology in the Development of Microbial Fuel Cells

AbstractInnovative solutions are paramount to the identification and development of alternative energy resources, specifically for the production of potable water. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a trending emerging technology that promises green energy production while simultaneously treating wastewater. At present, several research efforts are working towards determining which bacteria, fuels, and materials are optimal for developing the most efficient MFCs; microsized MFCs have a key role in this goal. Therefore, in this Review, we summarize recent microfabrication techniques for building microsized cells and elaborate on their advantages and the challenges that need to be overcome. We will then focus on the integration of nanomaterials into MFCs and finish with an overview on the challenges to scale up MFCs and potential uses for these miniature cells.

GEMM-I riboswitches from Geobacter sense the bacterial second messenger cyclic AMP-GMP

Cyclic dinucleotides are an expanding class of signaling molecules that control many aspects of bacterial physiology. A synthase for cyclic AMP-GMP (cAG, also referenced as 3'-5', 3'-5' cGAMP) called DncV is associated with hyperinfectivity of Vibrio cholerae but has not been found in many bacteria, raising questions about the prevalence and function of cAG signaling. We have discovered that the environmental bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens produces cAG and uses a subset of GEMM-I class riboswitches (GEMM-Ib, Genes for the Environment, Membranes, and Motility) as specific receptors for cAG. GEMM-Ib riboswitches regulate genes associated with extracellular electron transfer; thus cAG signaling may control aspects of bacterial electrophysiology. These findings expand the role of cAG beyond organisms that harbor DncV and beyond pathogenesis to microbial geochemistry, which is important to environmental remediation and microbial fuel cell development. Finally, we have developed an RNA-based fluorescent biosensor for live-cell imaging of cAG. This selective, genetically encodable biosensor will be useful to probe the biochemistry and cell biology of cAG signaling in diverse bacteria.

Development of Microbial Fuel Cell Using Distillery Spent Wash: Evaluation of Current Generation and COD Removal with Respect to pH

A single chamber microbial fuel cell (SCMFC) was operated with distillery spent wash (DSW) wastewater and microorganisms in cow-dung as inoculum source from pH 4 to 9. MFC signifies maximum current in the sequence of pH 6 (0.46 mA) > pH 7 (0.4 mA) > pH 8-9 (0.16-0.19 mA); whereas the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removed in order of pH 8-9 (80-81%) > pH 7 (79%) > pH 6 (68%). The losses in coulombic yield were due to alternating electron acceptors and air diffusion through the reactor. The polarization curve yielded the maximum current density of 84 mA/m and maximum power density of 29 mW/m at an external resistance 22 of 820 (pH 6). The cyclic voltammetry (CV) demonstrated 3-electron transfer process with best electrochemical responses at pH 6 and 7. The MFC at desired operating conditions showed a positive response for bioelectricity generation.

Microbes to Generate Electricity

Microbes to Generate Electricity

Development of Microbial Fuel Cells and Electrode Designs with Waste Water Anaerobes

Two designs of microbial fuel cells have been developed. In the first type, a Single Chambered-Microbial Fuel Cell of 200ml capacity was constructed with the cathode and anode made of carbon brushes in a ‘T’ shaped configuration, attached in Cloth Electrode Assembly. In the second type, multiple anodes attached in a circuit, were used in developing a Multi Anode Single Chambered-Microbial Fuel Cell of 100ml capacity along with a common cathode made of graphite powder and adhesive, hardened by air drying. The generation of voltage and current was observed with both designs. Three types of substrates viz Carboxy-Methyl-Cellulose, Dextrose and Sodium Acetate were used with anaerobic micro-organisms grown from waste water. Nernst Equation have been used to calculate maximum cell voltage due to ionic reaction of sodium acetate. The main purpose of the study was to validate workability of a novel MFC design in terms of current generation and cheap materials, hence showing current generation could be increased with multiple anodes sharing a common cathode and also providing possibility for serial connectivity for increasing voltage output.

Challenges in microbial fuel cell development and operation

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a device that converts chemical energy into electricity through the catalytic activities of microorganisms. Although there is great potential of MFCs as an alternative energy source, novel wastewater treatment process, and biosensor for oxygen and pollutants, extensive optimization is required to exploit the maximum microbial potential. In this article, the main limiting factors of MFC operation are identified and suggestions are made to improve performance.