Enhancing charge harvest from microbial fuel cells by controlling the charging and discharging frequency of capacitors

Capacitor is a storage device to harvest charge produced from microbial fuel cells (MFCs). In intermittent charging mode, the capacitor is charged by an MFC first, and then discharged through an external resistance. The charge harvested by capacitor is affected by the charging and discharging frequency. In the present study, the effect of the charging and discharging frequency on charge harvest was investigated. At the switching time (ts) of 100 s, the average current over each time segment reached its maximum value (1.59 mA) the earliest, higher than the other tested conditions, and the highest COD removal (63%) was also obtained, while the coulombic efficiency reached the highest of 67% at the ts of 400 s. Results suggested that lower ts led to higher current output and COD removal, but appropriate ts should be selected in consideration of charge recovery efficiency.