Study of a terrestrial microbial fuel cell and its power generation performance

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs), converting chemical energy in organic compounds to electrical energy through catalytic reactions of microorganisms, have been widely envisioned as one of the promising sustainable energy harvesting apparatuses, especially for remote monitoring applications. Aquatic microbial fuel cells (AMFCs) can generate considerable electrical energy, and the applications of AMFCs are approved. However, AMFCs can generate power only in water environment which limit the application range of AMFCs. So MFCs based on other carrier are demanded. A Terrestrial microbial fuel cell (TMFC) experimental setup is proposed in this study. The structure and inoculation procedure are presented in detail. The power generation performance of the proposed TMFC is tested. The Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) of the TMFC is about 0.75V and the output power density is about 3mW/m², which are normal values in previous researches of AMFCs. Experiment results showed that the proposed TMFCs worked well and it is one of alternative power sources for small electronic devices.