yzx8i6 - On-Line Monitoring of Minor Oil Spills in Seawater Using Sediment Microbial Fuel

Abstract

In recent years microbial fuel cells have been studied for their biosensing properties. Consequently, sediment microbial fuel cells (sMFCs) have been found to be able to detect minor oil spills in freshwater. However, it was previously unknown whether sMFC properties as a biosensor would be able to produce the same results in a saltwater environment. Therefore, sMFCs at various external resistances (220 Ω, 300 Ω, 430 Ω, 510 Ω, 1000 Ω and 2000 Ω) were assembled to assess their ability to detect oil in seawater. The results indicated that an ER of 1k Ω is optimal for sMFC power generation, and that as oil was added to the cathode of the sMFCs, there was a clear and gradual decrease in the voltage output due to the oil’s interference with oxygen dissolvability in seawater; However, the relationship between the change in voltage and change in time was less linear than the change observed in previous studies, and inconsistent across the different voltages. The variation observed may be due to the absence of a catalyst, such as platinum, which would have sped up the rate of the decrease in voltage. This study illustrates that sMFCs provide a cost effective and environmentally friendly method to detect minor oil spills in seawater.

Keywords

Identifiers

DOI

10.32388/yzx8i6.2

Journal

Qeios

Year

2024