Distributed multiple-anodes benthic microbial fuel cell as reliable power source for subsea sensors

Effect of Operating Parameters on the Performance Evaluation of Benthic Microbial Fuel Cells Using Sediments from the Bay of Campeche, Mexico

“…Liu et al (2015), as shown in Table 1, generated a maximum power density of 184 mW/m 2 , finding that this value was obtained due to the large surface area of the anode material where microorganisms can adhere more easily and obtain their electrons. They used carbon brushes, normalizing the values obtained with respect to the value of the cathode (6.24 cm 2 ) [23]. Morris et al (2012) and Majumber et al (2014) evaluated BMFC with aerated cathodes of carbon paper with Pt and carbon cloth respectively, obtaining lower densities of power and current than those in this study and showing that a floating air cathode of SSME with AC-CB gives better yields [28,29].…”

“…Liu et al (2015), as shown in Table 1, generated a maximum power density of 184 mW/m 2 , finding that this value was obtained due to the large surface area of the anode material where microorganisms can adhere more easily and obtain their electrons. They used carbon brushes, normalizing the values obtained with respect to the value of the cathode (6.24 cm 2 ) [23].…”

“…Cyclic voltammetry was performed using scanning speeds of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 mV/s, using as the working electrode a graphite bar, a reference electrode of Calomel and as counter electrode a Platinum coiled wire, in order to characterize the catalytic activity of the sediment [23,43]. Likewise, polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests were performed on the BMFC system, connecting the anode electrode as the working electrode (WE) and cathode as counter electrode (CE) and a reference electrode (RE), to observe the maximum density of current and power over time and to obtain the internal resistance of the system respectively, using the same configuration in the connection in the potentiostat.…”

“…Some authors such as Reimers et al (2001) and Tender et al (2008) observed that the oxygen in the aqueous cathode is limited by the submerged electrode, generating a maximum power density of 10 and 16 mW/m 2 respectively [12,21]. Therefore, this performance has been limited mainly by the oxygen reduction reaction at the aqueous cathode due to the poor kinetics of the reaction at neutral pH, which is why some authors propose the use of aerated cathodes for BMFC, where the oxygen flow is 3.7 times higher than in an aqueous cathode [10,16,23,[28][29][30]. These air cathodes are composed of three layers: the first is the collector in which electrons are received from the anode through the external circuit, the second is the catalyst which promotes the reduction reaction at the cathode and the third layer is the diffuser, which allows the reaction, improving the conditions of evaporation and substrate consumption [18,31].…”

The effect of number and configuration of sediment microbial fuel cells on their performance in an open channel architecture

“…Furthermore, as individual SMFCs produce little electricity [21], their operation in stack with different configurations (series and parallel mode) was also examined. Some of the previous studies claimed that SMFCs cannot be stacked in series connection as the electrodes are located in the same electrolyte solution [17,22,23], thus other approaches were suggested including power management systems to increase power output of SMFCs [10,14,23,24]. However, our hypothesis was that increase in voltage in series configuration would be possible by designing an appropriate system.…”