Wastewater Microbial Fuel Cell Stack with the Ability of Driving Low Power Electronic Load

Abstract

Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) uses bio-electrochemical process to generate electricity. It is considered as a new approach in renewable energy generation. However, due to low output voltage and current, supplying power to loads from MFC is quite challenging. Research so far done on MFC mainly focused on material analysis, creating new designs, bacterial activity in MFC and so on. But very few attempts have been done on delivering power to loads from MFC. In this research, using waste water as input, three Double chamber MFCs and two single chamber membrane-less MFCs have been constructed using Aluminum as anode and Copper as cathode. Constructed MFCs were connected in series which generated maximum 2.6 V. The MFC combination could light up a small Light Emitting Diode (LED).