• DocumentCode
    3469376
  • Title

    A biological solar panel

  • Author

    Lee, H. ; Choi, S.

  • Author_Institution
    Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., State Univ. of New York-Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, USA
  • fYear
    2015
  • fDate
    21-25 June 2015
  • Firstpage
    1921
  • Lastpage
    1924
  • Abstract
    We report a prototype scalable and stackable biological solar panel by installing miniature biological solar cells in an array format. Nine small-scale biological solar cells were integrated in a panel along with a common feed microfluidic channel. The biological solar panel continuously generated electricity from microbial photosynthetic and respiratory activities under day-night cycles. Requiring only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to operate, the biological solar panel offers advantages over potentially competing sustainable power sources such as microbial fuel cell stacks or photovoltaic panels because the photosynthetic microorganisms used here a) do not require an organic fuel, and b) are capable of producing power both during the day and at night.
  • Keywords
    carbon compounds; cellular biophysics; microbial fuel cells; microfluidics; microorganisms; photosynthesis; solar cell arrays; CO2; array format; biological solar panel; carbon dioxide; common feed microfluidic channel; day-night cycles; microbial fuel cell stacks; microbial photosynthetic activity; miniature biological solar cells; photosynthetic microorganisms; photovoltaic panels; respiratory activity; small-scale biological solar cells; sustainable power sources; Anodes; Fuel cells; Microfluidics; Microorganisms; Photovoltaic cells; Solar panels; Photosynthetic microbial fuel cells; biological solar panel; microbial photosynthesis; microbial respiration; sustainable power generation;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • Conference_Titel
    Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (TRANSDUCERS), 2015 Transducers - 2015 18th International Conference on
  • Conference_Location
    Anchorage, AK
  • Type

    conf

  • DOI
    10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2015.7181327
  • Filename
    7181327