Preliminary studies on immobilized cells-based microbial fuel cell system on its power generation performance

Abstract

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is considered an alternative energy production technology that uses the degradation ability of microbes toward organic matters. The resultant products are electrons that will be transferred to the electrode and flows to cathode of the MFC through an external circuit to produce current. The flow of electrons and protons can be channeled to an external circuit to produce electricity. Although the MFC has many advantages, the power density produced is still low. This happens due to high internal resistance cause by electrolyte, the MFC design and the microbes itself. In order to overcome the restriction cause by internal barrier, the present research has focused on developing bio-based anode using microbial cells immobilized in alginate and activated carbon mixture (GAC). In addition, the power production performance was analyzed via single chamber MFC (SCMFC). Through scanning electron microscopic (SEM) observation, the microbes have been successfully embedded into the matrix of alginate. Furthermore, using the GAC, maximum open circuit voltage produced was 403 mV which was higher than a control experiment without the usage of GAC, which achieved 217 mV only after 200 hours operation. In addition, the maximum power densities achieved by the MFC were 0.184mW/m3 for immobilized system and 0.0054mW/m3 for non-immobilized system respectively.