From the lab to the field: Self-stratifying microbial fuel cells stacks directly powering lights

Abstract

Highlights Urine fed microbial fuel cell stacks were used as a direct power source. Maintaining individual cells at high potential enables stable series connections. A stack continuously and directly powered LED spotlights in the field. A stack was connected to the lights through a LED-driver to limit cell reversal. Directly connecting LEDs to a stack is more stable than using LED drivers.

Estimation of total energy requirement for sewage treatment by a microbial fuel cell with a one-meter air-cathode assuming Michaelis–Menten COD degradation

“…where DCOD [g L À1 ] is the difference of C or C d during the given HRT, and V [L] is the wastewater volume in the reactor. The value of CE was determined by the least-squares tting of the measured and calculated current taking CE as a variable in eqn (9), in which the C value was calculated by MER and MME equations. The values of CE and I E were determined by the tting of the measured and calculated current taking CE and I E as variable values in eqn ( 10)-in which the C d value was calculated by the MME equation.…”

“…[3][4][5] Studies on the direct recovery of electricity from sanitary wastewater 6,7 and urine 8 have also shown the efficient removal of organic matter, and have proven that the recovered electricity can be used to power lighting devices. 9 Onsite installation of oating MFC vessels in sewage wastewater treatment plants can enable current recovery at relatively low concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD), i.e., 400-20 mg L À1 . [10][11][12] These results suggest that MFCs can be employed in municipal wastewater treatment for a wide range of COD values.…”

Biohybrid Entities for Environmental Monitoring

“…In the case of the Robocoenosis biohybrid system the production of electric power is managed by a MFC, that is colonised by local microbial life forms and uses locally available organic matter as an energy source. Energy harvesting based on bacterial activity has been actively investigated in specific and optimized lab conditions, as well as in non-aquatic robotics and field applications (Walter et al, 2020;Ieropoulos et al, 2012;Tsompanas et al, 2021). In previous studies, it has been shown that single MFCs do not scale well (Dewan et al, 2008) and when these cells are connected together, the phenomenon of voltage reversal disables the entire system (Oh and Logan, 2007).…”

Comparative Study of Different Operation Modes of Microbial Fuel Cells Treating Food Residue Biomass

“…In order to overcome these limitations, various designs and materials have been proposed [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Moreover, stacking multiple MFC units together is suggested as a solution to improve power outputs towards the practical implementation of MFC [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. However, stacking multiple units together carries its own challenges, such as the voltage reversal phenomenon.…”