Investigation of Electrolyte Conductivity on Performances of Sediment Microbial Fuel Cell

Sediment microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) are promising technology for viable source of energy. SMFC is considered to be an alternative renewable energy sources for small devices. In this research, a laboratory-scale SMFC was fabricated to bioelectricity generation from organic compound in Shallow sediment that was gathered from Mahmudabad River. The initial SMFC voltage was less than 150 mV but the voltage gradually increased and reached to maximum steady state condition (450 mV) after 6 days. Effect of electrolyte conductivity on SMFC performance was investigated. Electrical conductivity adjusted at 4 different levels (19.5, 26.2, 38.5 and 54.6 μS/cm) by addition of several concentration of NaCl (0.25, 0.5 0.75 and 1 M). With addition of cathode solution conductivity, SMFCs performance improved about 6 fold. Maximum generated power and current density, 49.84 mW/m2 and 596.41 mA/m2, respectively, obtained at NaCl