“Swami Hari”

Microbial Fuel Cell

Made By: Divya V. Chetnani

Roll no. 4
Class: Masters In Biotechnology (Sem 1)
College: Shree M.N Virani Science College,
Table Of Content
Introduction
Principle
Construction
Working
Types
Applications
Limitations
Conclusion
Introduction
 In the recent decades, consumption of energy within the world
has had a prosperous trend .

 Energy sources are classified into three batches: fossil fuels,

renewable sources and nuclear sources, in which non-renewable
sources of energy, which include an enormous portion of energy
consumption, could be categorized into two major
classifications: nuclear and fossil energy.

 Fossil fuels negatively influence the nature owing to the

emission of carbon dioxide.

 Itfollows logically from what has been said that the consumption
of fossil fuels has severely imperiled human life through its
drastic aftermaths, such as global warming and atmospheric
pollution.
 However, miscellaneous countries around the world have made
remarkable efforts to find a piece of cogent solution for energy
crisis by turning the eyes into renewable energy sources such as
solar energy, energy produced from wind and water.

 As an upshot of these efforts, one of the latterly proposed

alternative energy sources is fuel cell (FC) which generates
energy using high value metal catalysts (in the traditional
version).

 In actual fact, FC is of plethora advantages over other kinds of

energy generators, e.g. no emissions of environmental polluting
gases (such as SOx, NOx, CO2 and CO), higher efficiency, no
existence of mobile parts, as a result, lack of sonic pollution, and
so forth.

 In contrast, high cost and high mass generation are the only
disadvantages of these new energy sources.
 One type of FCs is microbial fuel cell (MFC).
Microbial Fuel Cell
Definition
A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a device
that converts chemical energy to electrical
energy by the action of microorganisms.
MFC Principle
oMicrobial fuel cell (MFC) use active microorganism as a biocatalyst
in an anaerobic anode compartment for production of bioelectricity.

oThey mimic the bacterial interactions.

oBased on redox reactions.

oHarnessthe natural metabolism of

microbes to produce electricity.

oBacteria converts substrate into

electrons.

oElectronsrun through the circuit

to generate power.
Construction
Organic material as fuel
Various things like glucose, acetate etc.

Can be Obtained from Wastewater & solid

waste especially domestic.
Anode
Cathode
Proton exchange

membrane
External circuit
 Working
•MFC use bacteria to generate electric current.

o Bacteria that live in anode convert organic

biomass under anerobic conditions into CO2
along with H+ and e-.
o These bacteria oxidise fuel into carbondioxide,
e- that flow in the external circuit and H+ pass
from proton exchange membrane.
o At cathode O2 is reduced to form water.
 Redox Reactions invovled
 Anodic Reaction (Oxidation)
◦ EX-1 : CH3COO - + 2H2O 2CO2 + 7H+ + 8e-
(Acetic acid ion)

◦ EX-2 : C6H12O6 + 6H2O 6CO2 + 24H+ + 24e-

(glucose)

 Cathodic Reaction (Reduction)

◦ EX-1 : O2 + 4H+ + 4e- 2H2O

◦ EX-2 : 6O2 + 24H+ + 24e- 12H2O

Types Of MFC
Mediated
Mediator free
Soil based
Phototrophic biofilm
Nanoporous membrane
Ceramic membrane
 Performance Enhancement of MFC
MEDIATOR MICROBIAL FUEL CELL
 Non conductive lipid membrane, lipopoly
saccharides & peptididoglycans in
microbes hinder electron transfer to anode.

 Hence they require mediator for transport

of electrons.

 Mediator in oxidizing state reduces by

capturing electrons & transports it to
anode & reoxidises.

 Synthetic mediators : Thionine, Methylene

Blue, Neutral Red.

 Natural mediators : Anthraquione, Humic

acid, Sulphate & Thiosulphate.
 Performance Enhancement of MFC

MEDIATOR LESS MFC

 Uses bioelectrochemically active bacteria

to transfer electrons to electrode.

 They have electrochemically active

redox enzymes like cytochromes on outer
membrane that helps in electron transfer.

 Form a biofilm on the anode surface &

transfer electrons directly by conductance
to anode.

 Shewanella putrefaciens & Aeromonas

hydrophila are some examples of
bioelectrochemically active bacteria
used.
Applications
 Power generation
o MFCs are attractive for power generation
o Virtually any organic material could be used to feed the fuel cell, including
coupling cells to wastewater treatment plants.
o MFCs are clean and the best method of energy production.
o Chemical process wastewater and synthetic wastewater have been used to
produce bioelectricity in dual- and single-chamber mediatorless MFCs
(uncoated graphite electrodes).

 Education
o Soil-based microbial fuel cells serve as educational tools, as they
encompass multiple scientific disciplines (microbiology, geochemistry,
electrical engineering, etc).
 Biosensor
o The current generated from a microbial fuel cell is directly proportional to
the energy content of wastewater used as the fuel. MFCs can measure the
solute concentration of wastewater (i.e., as a biosensor).

 Biorecovery
o In 2010, A. ter Heijne et al. constructed a device capable of producing
electricity and reducing Cu (II) (ion) to copper metal.
o Microbial electrolysis cells have been demonstrated to produce hydrogen.

 Wastewater treatment
o MFCs are used in water treatment to harvest energy utilizing anaerobic
digestion.

 Bioremediation
o Bioremediation of toxic compounds
Limitations
 Power generated by the cell may not be enough to run a sensor
or a transmitter continuously.

 This is the principal problem with using microbial cells.

 It can be solved by increasing the surface area of the electrodes.

 Also the other solution is to use a suitable power management

program: the data are transferred only when enough energy is
stored and this occurs by using ultra capacitor.

 Finally,the other limitation of MFCs is that they cannot operate

at extremely low temperatures due to the fact that microbial
reactions are slow at low temperatures.
Conclusion
 With the world’s attention focused on global warming and
depleting Natural resources, demand for green energy booming!!

 Mfc is an excellent source of bioenergy, that is energy from micro

organisms.

 MFCs are one of the newest technologies to produce energy from

different sources of substrates.

 Because of the promise of sustainable energy generation from

different substrates such as organic wastes, research has been
intensified in this field in the last few years.

 MFCs have different applications based on generated power.

 The generated power in MFC is still too low and researchers are
working to improve it for commercial application.