Study of a terrestrial microbial fuel cell and the effects of its power generation performance by environmental factors

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are considering as a promising alternative renewable energy source, especially for remote monitoring applications. The power generation performance of Aquatic microbial fuel cells (AMFCs) has been verified, and the applications of AMFCs are approved. However, the application range is limited for AMFCs because of the water environment they need. So MFCs based on other carrier are demanded. A Terrestrial microbial fuel cell (TMFC) is proposed in this study. The structure and inoculation procedure are presented and the power generation performance of the proposed TMFC is tested. The Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) of the proposed TMFC is about 0.75V and the output power density is about 3mW/m², which are normal values in previous researches of AMFCs. The relationship between environment temperature, soil water content and the output power density of the proposed TMFC are tested by experiments, which can explain the effects of the TMFC power generation performance by environmental factors. Experiment results suggest that TMFCs are one of alternative power sources for small electronic devices.