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A terrestrial microbial fuel cell (TMFC) was designed to power a single-hop wireless sensor network (WSN), achieving good power generation performance under specific environmental conditions.

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Representative MFC — matched on the paper’s system type only, not its reactor or geometry.

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What they did

System
MFC
Substrate
pure compound

What worked

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Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are envisioned as one of the most promising alternative renewable energy sources because they can generate electric current continuously while treating waste. Terrestrial Microbial Fuel Cells (TMFCs) can be inoculated and work on the use of soil, which further extends the application areas of MFCs. Energy supply, as a primary influential factor determining the lifetime of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) nodes, remains an open challenge in sensor networks. In theory, sensor nodes powered by MFCs have an eternal life. However, low power density and high internal resistance of MFCs are two pronounced problems in their operation. A single-hop WSN powered by a TMFC experimental setup was designed and experimented with. Power generation performance of the proposed TMFC, the relationships between the performance of the power generation and the environment temperature, the water content of the soil by weight were measured by experiments. Results show that the TMFC can achieve good power generation performance under special environmental conditions. Furthermore, the experiments with sensor data acquisition and wireless transmission of the TMFC powering WSN were carried out. We demonstrate that the obtained experimental results validate the feasibility of TMFCs powering WSNs.

Key findings

  • The TMFC can generate electric current continuously while treating waste, making it a promising alternative renewable energy source.
  • The power generation performance of the TMFC is affected by environmental temperature and soil water content.
  • The TMFC can power a WSN for an extended period, with sensor nodes potentially having an eternal life.

Keywords

Microbial fuel cellWireless sensor networkRenewable energyEnergy harvestingWirelessElectricity generation

Identifiers

DOI
10.3390/ijms17050762
Journal
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Year
2016