Operational testing of sediment microbial fuel cells in San Diego Bay

Author

Bergen, A. Q Wotawa ; Chadwick, D.B. ; Richter, K.E. ; Tender, L.M. ; Reimers, C.E. ; Gong, Y.

Author_Institution

Space & Naval Warfare Syst. Center, Oregon State Univ., San Diego, CA, USA

fYear

2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

In-situ testing has been conducted to evaluate the output power of sediment-based microbial fuel cell prototypes. Prototypes have been developed, by the Naval Research Lab (NRL) and Oregon State University (OSU), to power a hydrophone that is used by the Navy to track pacific green sea turtles in San Diego Bay. The NRL MFC anode consisted of a graphite anode buried in anaerobic sediment. The OSU MFC anode consisted of a carbon fiber anode inside a chamber that created a seal with the sediment. Both systems had a carbon fiber cathode floating in the water column. Each fuel cell trickle charged a rechargeable battery which provided power to the hydrophone. The MFC designed by NRL generated up to 60 mW of power and powered the hydrophone for a three month period of time. A miniature MFC was developed that evaluated the power potential of sediment and determined the optimal deployment sites for MFC systems.

Keywords

electrochemical electrodes; graphite; hydrophones; microbial fuel cells; secondary cells; sediments; NRL MFC anode; Naval research lab; OSU; OSU MFC anode; Oregon state university; San Diego Bay; anaerobic sediment; carbon fiber anode; carbon fiber cathode; graphite anode; hydrophone; operational testing; pacific green sea turtle; rechargeable battery; sediment microbial fuel cell; Anodes; Batteries; Carbon; Cathodes; Power generation; Sediments; Sonar equipment;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

OCEANS 2010

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4332-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OCEANS.2010.5664612

Filename

5664612