Miniaturizing microbial fuel cells

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) represent an emerging technology for electricity generation from renewable biomass. Given the demand for a better understanding of the bio/inorganic interface that plays a key role in MFC energy production, small-scale MFCs are receiving considerable attention owing to their intrinsic advantages in both fundamental studies and applications as high-throughput platforms. Here, we present a brief review centered on the development of miniature MFCs at the milliliter to microliter scale. The principles, design motifs and experimental demonstrations of representative miniature MFC devices and systems are introduced, followed by a discussion of the key challenges and opportunities for realizing the exciting potentials of miniaturized MFCs.     

Anodic reactions in microbial fuel cells

Potentiometric and amperometric measurements were made with microbial fuel cells containing E. coli or yeast as the anodic reducing agent and glucose as the oxidizable substrate. The catalytic effects of thionine and resorufin on the anode reaction were investigated. Results on the potentiometry, polarization, and coulombic output of the cells support a mediator-coupled mechanism for the transfer of electrons from the organism to the electrode in preference to a mechanism of "direct" electrochemical oxidation of glucose or its degradation products. Experiments with (14)C-labeled glucose show that when a microbial fuel cell produces a current under load, exogenous glucose is metabolized to produce (14)CO(2). The Coulombic yields of the cells indicate a high degree of energy conversion in these systems.     

Glycerol degradation in single-chamber microbial fuel cells

Glycerol degradation with electricity production by a pure culture of Bacillus subtilis in a single-chamber air cathode of microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been demonstrated. Steady state polarization curves indicated a maximum power density of 0.06 mW/cm² with an optimal external resistance of 390Ω. Analysis of the effect of pH on MFC performance demonstrated that electricity generation was sustained over a long period of time under neutral to alkaline conditions. Cyclic voltammetry exhibited the increasing electrochemical activity with the increase of pH of 7, 8 and 9. Voltammetric studies also demonstrated that a two-electron transfer mechanism was occurring in the reactor. The low Coulombic efficiency of 23.08% could be attributed to the loss of electrons for various activities other than electricity generation. This study describes an application of glycerol that could contribute to transformation of the biodiesel industry to a more environmentally friendly microbial fuel cell-based technology.     

Energy from algae using microbial fuel cells

Bioelectricity production from a phytoplankton, Chlorella vulgaris, and a macrophyte, Ulva lactuca was examined in single chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs). MFCs were fed with the two algae (as powders), obtaining differences in energy recovery, degradation efficiency, and power densities. C. vulgaris produced more energy generation per substrate mass (2.5 kWh/kg), but U. lactuca was degraded more completely over a batch cycle (73 ± 1% COD). Maximum power densities obtained using either single cycle or multiple cycle methods were 0.98 W/m² (277 W/m³) using C. vulgaris, and 0.76 W/m² (215 W/m³) using U. lactuca. Polarization curves obtained using a common method of linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) overestimated maximum power densities at a scan rate of 1 mV/s. At 0.1 mV/s, however, the LSV polarization data was in better agreement with single‐ and multiple‐cycle polarization curves. The fingerprints of microbial communities developed in reactors had only 11% similarity to inocula and clustered according to the type of bioprocess used. These results demonstrate that algae can in principle, be used as a renewable source of electricity production in MFCs. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;103: 1068–1076. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Electricity-producing bacterial communities in microbial fuel cells

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are not yet commercialized but they show great promise as a method of water treatment and as power sources for environmental sensors. The power produced by these systems is currently limited, primarily by high internal (ohmic) resistance. However, improvements in the system architecture will soon result in power generation that is dependent on the capabilities of the microorganisms. The bacterial communities that develop in these systems show great diversity, ranging from primarily delta-Proteobacteria that predominate in sediment MFCs to communities composed of alpha-, beta-, gamma- or delta-Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and uncharacterized clones in other types of MFCs. Much remains to be discovered about the physiology of these bacteria capable of exocellular electron transfer, collectively defined as a community of "exoelectrogens". Here, we review the microbial communities found in MFCs and the prospects for this emerging bioenergy technology.     

Effects of sediment pretreatment on the performance of sediment microbial fuel cells

In the present study, the effects of different pretreatment methods for sediments on the performance of sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) were evaluated. Autoclaved (30 and 60 min), and heated (150 °C, 3 h) sediments demonstrated high power density, compared with control and heated (60 °C, 3 h) sediments. An SMFC with heated (60 °C, 3 h) sediment was found to easily form a biocathode. The power density of an SMFC with heated (150 °C, 3 h) sediment was 214 mW m(-2) on day 24. Furthermore, autoclaved (30 and 60 min) and heated (3 h, 60 and 150 °C) sediments accelerated the production of dissolved organic matter (DOM). The DOM in heated (60 °C, 3 h) sediments had larger molecular sizes. The present study demonstrates that SMFCs can have high power density and high loss on ignition removal efficiencies when produced from sediments by suitable pretreatment methods.     

光合细菌在微生物燃料电池中的应用研究进展

微生物燃料电池(Microbial fuel cells,MFCs)降解污染物的同时产生电能,受到广泛关注。光合细菌在MFCs领域的应用实现了污水处理、CO2捕捉、光电转换等多重功能,并显示出了良好的产电特性。本文根据光合细菌在MFCs中所起作用的不同对其产电机理进行评述,并在此基础上分析了光照对光合细菌型MFCs产电性能的影响;针对当前研究的不足与面临的问题,提出了今后光合细菌在MFCs领域的应用前景与发展方向。     

Recent advances in the separators for microbial fuel cells

Separator plays an important role in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Despite of the rapid development of separators in recent years, there are remaining barriers such as proton transfer limitation and oxygen leakage, which increase the internal resistance and decrease the MFC performance, and thus limit the practical application of MFCs. In this review, various separator materials, including cation exchange membrane, anion exchange membrane, bipolar membrane, microfiltration membrane, ultrafiltration membranes, porous fabrics, glass fibers, J-Cloth and salt bridge, are systematically compared. In addition, recent progresses in separator configuration, especially the development of separator electrode assemblies, are summarized. The advances in separator materials and configurations have opened up new promises to overcome these limitations, but challenges remain for the practical application. Here, an outlook for future development and scaling-up of MFC separators is presented and some suggestions are highlighted.     

微生物燃料电池在毒性物质检测中的应用

微生物燃料电池(Microbial fuel cell,MFC)利用微生物整体作为催化剂催化底物将化学能直接转化为电能,是一种极具应用前景的生物电化学技术。微生物在阳极氧化还原有机物产生电子并传递给阳极,电子通过外电路传递至阴极后将电子释放给阴极中的氧化剂,从而产生电流。当有毒物质进入MFC,微生物活性降低,电子传递量变少,电流降低,而电流的产生与微生物活性呈线性关系,据此可检测样品的毒性。本文主要介绍了微生物燃料电池在毒性物质抗生素、重金属离子、有机污染物、酸等方面的研究,并分析了微生物燃料电池存在的问题及未来研究方向,以期不久的将来微生物燃料电池能付之使用。     

Oxygen exposure promotes fuel diversity for Shewanella oneidensis microbial fuel cells

Miniature microbial fuel cells (mini-MFCs) were used to monitor the current generated by Shewanella oneidensis DSP10 under both anaerobic and aerobic conditions when exposed to glucose as a potential electron donor. In addition to glucose, other carbon fuels including fructose, sucrose, acetate, and ascorbic acid were also tested. When the anolyte containing S. oneidensis was grown in the presence of oxygen, power densities of 270+/-10, 350+/-20, and 120+/-10 W/m(3) were recorded from the mini-MFC for glucose, fructose, and ascorbic acid electron donors, respectively, while sucrose and acetate produced no response. The power produced from glucose decreased considerably (相似文献   

Anodic and cathodic microbial communities in single chamber microbial fuel cells

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Autotrophic nitrite removal in the cathode of microbial fuel cells

Nitrification to nitrite (nitritation process) followed by reduction to dinitrogen gas decreases the energy demand and the carbon requirements of the overall process of nitrogen removal. This work studies autotrophic nitrite removal in the cathode of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Special attention was paid to determining whether nitrite is used as the electron acceptor by exoelectrogenic bacteria (biologic reaction) or by graphite electrodes (abiotic reaction). The results demonstrated that, after a nitrate pulse at the cathode, nitrite was initially accumulated; subsequently, nitrite was removed. Nitrite and nitrate can be used interchangeably as an electron acceptor by exoelectrogenic bacteria for nitrogen reduction from wastewater while producing bioelectricity. However, if oxygen is present in the cathode chamber, nitrite is oxidised via biological or electrochemical processes. The identification of a dominant bacterial member similar to Oligotropha carboxidovorans confirms that autotrophic denitrification is the main metabolism mechanism in the cathode of an MFC.     

Investigating the effects of fluidic connection between microbial fuel cells

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can ‘treat’ wastewater but individually are thermodynamically restricted. Scale-up might, therefore, require a plurality of units operating in a stack which could introduce losses simply through fluidic connections. Experiments were performed on two hydraulically joined MFCs (20 cm apart) where feedstock flowed first through the upstream unit (MFC_up) and into the downstream unit (MFC_down) to explore the interactive effect of electrical load connection, influent make-up and flow-rate on electrical outputs. This set-up was also used to investigate how calculating total internal resistance based on a dynamic open circuit voltage (OCV) might differ from using the starting OCV. When fed a highly conductive feedstock (~4,800 μS) MFC_down dropped approximately 180 mV as progressively heavier loads were applied to MFC_up (independent of flow-rate) due to electron leakages through the medium. The conductivities of plain acetate solutions (5 and 20 mM) were insufficient to induce losses in MFC_down even when MFC_up was operating at high current densities. However, at the highest flow-rate (240 mL/h) MFC_down dropped by approximately 100 mV when using 5 and 220 mV using 20 mM acetate. When the distance between MFCs was reduced by 5 cm, voltage drops were apparent even at lower flow-rates, (30 mL/h decreased the voltage by 115 mV when using 20 mM acetate). Shear flow-rates can introduce dissolved oxygen and turbulence all capable of affecting the anodic biofilm and redox conditions. Calculating total internal resistance using a dynamic OCV produced a more stable curve over time compared to that based on the starting constant OCV.     

Electricity generation and microbial community analysis of alcohol powered microbial fuel cells

Two different microbial fuel cell (MFC) configurations were investigated for electricity production from ethanol and methanol: a two-chambered, aqueous-cathode MFC; and a single-chamber direct-air cathode MFC. Electricity was generated in the two-chamber system at a maximum power density typical of this system (40+/-2 mW/m2) and a Coulombic efficiency (CE) ranging from 42% to 61% using ethanol. When bacteria were transferred into a single-chamber MFC known to produce higher power densities with different substrates, the maximum power density increased to 488+/-12 mW/m2 (CE = 10%) with ethanol. The voltage generated exhibited saturation kinetics as a function of ethanol concentration in the two-chambered MFC, with a half-saturation constant (Ks) of 4.86 mM. Methanol was also examined as a possible substrate, but it did not result in appreciable electricity generation. Analysis of the anode biofilm and suspension from a two-chamber MFC with ethanol using 16S rDNA-based techniques indicated that bacteria with sequences similar to Proteobacterium Core-1 (33.3% of clone library sequences), Azoarcus sp. (17.4%), and Desulfuromonas sp. M76 (15.9%) were significant members of the anode chamber community. These results indicate that ethanol can be used for sustained electricity generation at room temperature using bacteria on the anode in a MFC.