Effect of Type and Concentration of Substrate on Power Generation in a Dual Chambered Microbial Fuel Cell

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell, as a new technology for energy generation, has gained a lot of attention in converting a wide range of organic and inorganic substrates to bioelectricity in recent years. Substrate as the fuel of MFCs has an effective role on the performance of MFCs. To investigate the effect of type and concentration of substrate on the MFC performance, glucose and date syrup were examined over a concentration range of 2-20 g.l-1. Date syrup or any waste of date could be used as a natural substrate while glucose is considered as a synthetic carbon source. In this research a two-rectangular chambered MFC separated by a Nafion 112 proton exchange membrane, was constructed. The anodic compartment was inoculated by saccharomyces cerevisiae as biocatalyst. 200 µmol.l-1 of neutral red as the anodic mediator and 300 µmol.l-1 of potassium ferricyanide as oxidizer were added to anode and cathode chambers, respectively. The results has shown that 3 g.l-1 date syrupfed-MFC had the highest power density, 51.95 mW.m-2 (normalized to the geometric area of the anodic membrane, which was 9 cm 2), corresponding to a current density of 109.0384 mA.m-2 and a MFC voltage of 967 mV.

Influence of Substrate Proximate Properties on Voltage Production in Microbial Fuel Cells

“…V. Using a substrate with double the protein levels results in a 2 fold increase in voltage generated [28].…”

Fuzzy Modelling and Optimization of Yeast-MFC for Simultaneous Wastewater Treatment and Electrical Energy Production

“…However, at higher glucose concentrations, the performance could be decreased due to the decrease in the anolyte conductivity by glucose (nonconductive) [34]. Furthermore, the increasing amount of glucose in the anode chamber could inhibit the yeast growth and rebate the yeast metabolism and thus the power output [40]. The effect of glucose concentration and glucose/yeast ratio significantly appears in the case of mediator-less MFC.…”

Microbial fuel cells—A preferred technology to prevail energy crisis

“…151 Different substrates with specifications were reported for their markedly greater influences for power outputs (Table 6). 163 Third generation (algae) may also be applied as a substrate in MFC assembly since it has the potential to be used for energy generation from biological waste. The major benefit of using algae in MFCs is that no initial pre-treatment of the waste is required in this case.…”