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Generic MFCRepresentative model
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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

What worked

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Abstract

The integration of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) in a microfluidic geometry can significantly enhance the power density of these cells, which would have more active bacteria per unit volume. Moreover, microfluidic MFCs can be operated in a continuous mode as opposed to the traditional batch-fed mode. Here we investigate the effect of fluid flow on the performance of microfluidic MFCs. The growth and the structure of the bacterial biofilm depend to a large extent on the shear stress of the flow. We report the existence of a range of flow rates for which MFCs can achieve maximum voltage output. When operated under these optimal conditions, the power density of our microfluidic MFC is about 15 times that of a similar-size batch MFC. Furthermore, this optimum suggests a correlation between the behaviour of bacteria and fluid flow.

Keywords

Microbial fuel cellMicrofluidicsPower densityBiofilmVolumetric flow rateFlow (mathematics)

Identifiers

DOI
10.1039/c4cp01086h
PubMed
24832908
Journal
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Year
2014