Development of immobilised bioanode for microbial fuel cell

Abstract

The efficiency of Microbial fuel cell (MFC) performance is based on how well the electron is transferred and finally turned into electrical power in a complete electrical circuit. However, MFC power capacity is still very low compare to similar conceptual fuel cell and one of the major reasons is due to high internal resistance imposed by macro-environment of an MFC. In the present research, the objectives were to develop bio-based anode and its usage in the MFC for power production. The power production was compared using free cells in MFC. The bioanode was developed by mixing cells solution and graphite granules overnight before adding alginate and subjected to homogenisation. The mixture was then immobilised using entrapment method to obtained uniform beads. Initial study was conducted using glucose as fuel and both open circuit voltage (OCV) and closed circuit voltage (CCV) were evaluated using MFC. Results show OCV increased gradually and still increased after 6 h of operation compared to free cells. In CCV profile for free cells show a decrease in voltage generated but then rapidly increased which indicates a 'power-overshoot' phenomenon which was not observe on immobilised based bioanode MFC. The maximum OCV was 2-fold higher for immobilised based bioanode compared to free cells. In conclusion, the immobilised based anode or bio-anode produced was proved viable for MFC application.