Growth Energy of Bacteria and the Associated Electricity Generation in Fuel Cells

This paper aims to determine the mechanism by which microbial fuel cells (MFCs) convert the chemical energy into electrical energy by the catalytic reaction of microorganisms in waste water/sewage treatment plants, to be predictable and controllable so as to economize the project. The wide range of soluble activated sludge in waste streams as a source of bacteria from low to very highestimated statistically is responsible for risks of electric current inhibition. For optimizing electricity generation in a continuous process and a large-scale production; a mathematical model is presented to describe the bacteria growth energy (BGE) consumed from the amounts of the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) contained in fed wastewater along with predicting the amounts of electricity generated by the MFCs. Simulations of the presented model showed that the Input Energy (IE) of the BOD is always balanced with its subsequent from the BGE and the concomitant generated electrical energy according to law of conservation of energy.