Development of low cost microbial fuel cell based on Escherichia coli

The efficiency in the electricity generation provided by microbial fuel cells represents an important aspect to be improved in the development of new devices. In this work, we have explored a simple and low cost microbial fuel cell activated by Escherichia coli, which is immersed in nutrients (tryptic soy broth) with electron transfer mediated by methylene blue. Dual chamber reactor has compartments connected using different cation exchange membranes (Nafion and poly (methyl metacrylate)). The kinetics of energy generation was characterized by measurement of voltage between electrodes and power output as a function of concentration of mediator and type of cation exchange membrane.