2. Contents:
2
 Introduction
 History
 Literature survey
 Types of Microbial fuel cells
 Working Principle
 Applications
 References
11/25/2013

3. Introduction
• Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) are an emerging
technology that uses bacteria to generate electricity
from waste.
• Microbial Fuel Cells are used to produce electricity
while simultaneously cleaning wastewater.
• With future development, MFCs have the potential to
produce hydrogen for fuel cells, desalinate sea water,
and provide sustainable energy sources for remote areas.
3 11/25/2013

4. Definition
A microbial fuel cell is a device that converts chemical energy
in to electrical energy by the catalytic reaction of
microorganisms (Bacteria).
A simple microbial fuel cell
4 11/25/2013

5. History
• The idea of obtaining energy from bacteria began in
1911 with M. C. Potter, a professor of botany at the
University of Durham .
• In 1980, M. J. Allen and H. Peter Bennetto from
Kings College in London revolutionized the original
microbial fuel cell design.
• In the 1990s, B-H.Kim, a researcher from the Korean
Institute of Science and Technology, discovered that
certain species of bacteria were electrochemically
active and didn’t require the use of a mediator
molecule to transport electrons to the electrodes.
5 11/25/2013

6. 11/25/20136
Literature Survey
“Electricity production coupled with Waste Water
treatment using MICROBIAL FUEL CELL”
 by Vineetha V, Shibu K. Department of Civil
Engineering, College of Engineering,
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
 This paper presents the study on mediator less MFCs for
waste water treatment using modified anodes .
 comparison of electricity generation was carried out with
Plain carbon rods and iron coated carbon rods as anodes.

7. 11/25/20137
 It was observed that this single chambered mediator less
microbial fuel cell was capable of giving higher removal
of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biological
Oxygen Demand (BOD).
 maximum voltage production was obtained from MFC
with heated iron coated carbon as anode.

8. 11/25/20138
“Electricity Generation from Petrochemical Wastewater
Using a Membrane-Less Single Chamber” Microbial Fuel
Cell
 By Seyed Kamran Foad Marashi, Hamid-Reza Kariminia
 Effects of wastewater concentration as substrate for
microbial oxidation, and anode material (stainless steel or
carbon brush) were investigated as designing parameters
 Higher voltage was observed at more concentrated
wastewater.
 Carbon brush anode had 2-folds maximum power density
than that of stainless steel anode electrode.

9. 11/25/20139
 by Hongwei Gao, Andrew Meehan, and Zbigniew
Lewandowski ,Montana State University, Bozeman, USA.
“New Microbial Fuel Cell Power System for
Efficiency Improvement”
 Their paper presents a power management system for
energy harvesting with multiple microbial fuel cells (MFCs)
 The system first connects a capacitor to each MFC
in parallel so that the capacitors are charged by the
MFCs

10. 11/25/201310
 The system allows low voltage low current MFCs to be
used to power high voltage high current electronic devices
deployed in the water. The system was tested in the lab
 Then the system disconnects the capacitors from the
MFCs, connects all the capacitors in series, and connects all
the series-connected capacitors to a boost converter.

11. Types of Microbial fuel cells
• Mediator microbial fuel cell:
The electron transfer from microbial cells to the
electrode is facilitated by mediators such as
thionine, methyl blue, neutral red and so on.
• Mediator-free microbial fuel cell:
Mediator-free microbial fuel cells do not require a
mediator but use electrochemically active bacteria to
transfer electrons to the electrode.
11 11/25/2013

12. Some electrochemically active bacteria's are:
 Shewanella putrefaciens
 Aeromonas hydrophila
 Geobacteraceae, etc.
12 11/25/2013

13. Working of microbial fuel cell
A schematic of a microbial fuel cell13 11/25/2013

14. The electron transport chain
14 11/25/2013

15. 11/25/201315
Electrical generation process:
Anode:
C6H12O6+6H2O 6CO2+24H++24e-
Cathode:
24H++24e-+6O2 12H20

16. 11/25/201316
Choice of electrode materials:
 Graphite foil
 Carbon paper
 Felt
 Foam
 Activated carbon cloth
 Conductive polymers
 Metals such as aluminium, nickel or stainless steel.

17. Ways the MFC can improve the
world
17
(Applications)
11/25/2013

18. • Brewery and food manufacturing wastewater can
be treated by microbial fuel cells because their
wastewater is rich in organic compounds that can
serve as food for the microorganisms.
Brewery Wastewater Treatment
• Breweries are ideal for the implementation of
microbial fuel cells, as their wastewater composition is
always the same.
• Fosters, an Australian beer company, has begun
testing out an MFC to clean its wastewater while
generating electricity and clean water.
18 11/25/2013

19. A microbial fuel cell in a
brewery used for wastewater
treatment
• Each long tube is one large
Microbial Fuel Cell.
• Twelve MFCs are placed in
parallel to clean the large
volume of wastewater.
• Wastewater flows in at the
top, is cleaned by bacteria, and
comes out the bottom as
purified water.
19 11/25/2013

20. Sewage Treatment
• Sewage wastewater can also be converted via microbial
fuel cells to decompose the waste organic material contained
within it.
•Research has shown that MFCs can reduce the amount of
organic material present in sewage wastewater up to 80%.
•The process is very similar to brewery wastewater
treatment, with the difference being that the water must first
be pre-treated to remove toxins and other non-biodegradable
materials.
20 11/25/2013

21. Desalination
• Desalination of sea water and brackish water for use as
drinking water has always presented significant problems
because of the amount of energy required to remove the
dissolved salts from the water.
• By using an adapted microbial fuel cell, this process
could proceed with no external electrical energy input.
21 11/25/2013

22. • By adding a third chamber in between the two electrodes
of a standard MFC and filling it with sea water, the cell’s
positive and negative
electrodes attract the
positive and negative
salt ions in the water
and, using semi-permeable
membranes, filters out the
salt from the sea water.
A desalination microbial fuel cell
22 11/25/2013

23. Hydrogen Production
• The standard MFC is converted to hydrogen production by
keeping both chambers anaerobic and supplementing the MFC
with electricity.
•Hydrogen bubbles form at the cathode and are collected for
use as fuel source.
• This method of producing hydrogen is very efficient because
more than 90% of the protons and electrons generated by the
bacteria at the anode are turned into hydrogen gas .
23 11/25/2013

24. Remote Sensors
• By placing the anode in the anaerobic sediment of a river or
ocean and placing the cathode in the aerobic water right above
the sediment, a current is generated.
• Anaerobic bacteria that
naturally grow in the sediment
produce the small current that
can be used to charge a
capacitor to store energy for
whenever the sensor needs it.
Microbial fuel cell integrated
into riverbed24 11/25/2013

25. Cleansing Polluted Lakes and Rivers
• The anode is submerged in the water where organic
pollutants feed the bacteria
while the cathode floats on
top of the water.
• The organic pollutants are
decomposed to carbon dioxide
and water, cleansing the
polluted lake or stream.
A robot powered by an integrated
microbial fuel cell25 11/25/2013

26. Remote Power Source
• The materials required to construct the simple MFC are
soil, manure, copper wire, buckets, and graphite cloth.
• The electrical current produced by a simple homemade
MFC is enough to recharge a cell phone battery.
A cheap microbial fuel cell
made by the Lebone group
26 11/25/2013

27. Conclusion
• The many applications of MFCs will help to reduce the
use of fossil fuels.
• Widespread use of MFCs in these areas can take our
waste products and transform them into energy
.
27 11/25/2013
• Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) use bacteria to convert
organic waste material into electrical energy.

28. References
28 11/25/2013
[1] Emmanuel P. Leana and Sandhya Babel, 2011
IEEE First Conference on Clean Energy and Technology CET
“Electricity Generation from Anaerobic Sludge and Cassava
Wastewater Subjected to Pre-treatment Methods Using
Microbial Fuel Cell”.
[2] Vineetha V, Shibu K. Department of Civil Engineering,
College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
“Electricity production coupled with Waste water treatment
using microbial fuel cell”

29. 29 11/25/2013
[3] Seyed Kamran Foad Marashi, Hamid-Reza Kariminia
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
Sharif University of Technology Tehran, Iran
“Electricity Generation from Petrochemical Wastewater
Using a Membrane-Less Single Chamber” Microbial Fuel
Cell
[4] Hongwei Gao, Andrew Meehan, and Zbigniew
Lewandowski Montana State University, Bozeman, USA
“New Microbial Fuel Cell Power System for
Efficiency Improvement”

30. 11/25/201330
Websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_fuel_cell
http://www.microbialfuelcell.org/www/
http://illumin.usc.edu/printer/134/microbial-fuel-cells-
generating-power-from-waste/

31. 31 11/25/2013