Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) with hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) separators showed higher Coulombic efficiencies (94%) and power densities (1220 mW m(-2)) than cells with porous glass fiber separators or reactors without a separator after 32 days of operation. These remarkable increases in both the coublomic efficiency and the power production of the microbial fuel cells were made possibl...

Microbial fuel cells utilises waste carbohydrates as fuel. It has the property of not utilising a catalyst or proton exchange membrane and it is thus eco-friendly for treating wastes. Biological fuel cell converts chemical energy directly into electrical energy. They are in light because they act in very mild conditions such as ambient temperature, pressure, and inexpensive catalysts i.e. micro...

In many microbial bioreactors, high shear rates result in strong attachment of microbes and dense biofilms. In this study, high shear rates were applied to enrich an anodophilic microbial consortium in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). Enrichment at a shear rate of about 120 s(-1) resulted in the production of a current and power output two to three times higher than those in the case of low shear r...

Microbial anodes and oxygen reducing microbial cathodes were designed separately under constant polarization at + 0.1 V/SCE in a hypersaline medium (NaCl 45 g/L). They then associated to design two-compartment fuel cells (MFCs). These MFCs produced up 209 ± 24 mW m?2 during week. This was the first demonstration that equipped with can produce power density this level. Desulfuromonas sp. confirm...

The versatility of gold for electrode manufacture suggests that it could be an ideal material for some microbial fuel cell applications. However, previous studies have suggested that microorganisms that readily transfer electrons to graphite do not transfer electrons to gold. Investigations with Geobacter sulfurreducens demonstrated that it could grow on gold anodes producing current nearly as ...

The possibility of generating electricity with microbial fuel cells has been recognized for some time, but practical applications have been slow to develop. The recent development of a microbial fuel cell that can harvest electricity from the organic matter stored in marine sediments has demonstrated the feasibility of producing useful amounts of electricity in remote environments. Further stud...

Although the mechanisms of bioelectrocatalytic substrate oxidation processes in microbial fuel cells and, especially, of anodic electron transfer are of utmost importance for the performance of microbial fuel cells, little is known, so far, of the nature of the underlying mechanisms. For this reason, research activities in this field have considerably intensified over the past years. Different ...

Practical applications of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for wastewater treatment will require operation of these systems over a wide range of wastewater temperatures. MFCs at room or higher temperatures (20-35°C) are relatively well studied compared those at lower temperatures. MFC performance was examined here over a temperature range of 4-30°C in terms of startup time needed for reproducible po...

The technology is based on microbial fuel cells (MFCs), which use microorganisms as catalysts to convert chemical energy to electrical energy. The paper’s authors, including Bruce Logan of Pennsylvania State University and Xiaoxin Cao of Tsinghua University (China), are among the small group of researchers worldwide trying to improve MFCs—or bioelectrochemical systems, as they are beginning to ...