Investigating Air-Cathode Microbial Fuel Cells Performance under Different Serially and Parallelly Connected Configurations

Mariagiovanna Minutillo, Simona Di Micco, Paolo Di Giorgio, Giovanni Erme and Elio Jannelli
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Mariagiovanna Minutillo: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy
Simona Di Micco: Centro Direzionale, Department of Engineering, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Isola C4, 80143 Naples, NA, Italy
Paolo Di Giorgio: Centro Direzionale, Department of Engineering, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Isola C4, 80143 Naples, NA, Italy
Giovanni Erme: Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via G. Di Biasio 43, 03043 Cassino, FR, Italy
Elio Jannelli: ATENA Future Technology, Via V. Visconti, 77, 80147 Naples, NA, Italy

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-15

Abstract: Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have recently attracted more attention in the context of sustainable energy production. They can be considered as a future solution for the treatment of organic wastes and the production of bioelectricity. However, the low output voltage and the low produced electricity limit their applications as energy supply systems. The scaling up of MFCs both by developing bigger reactors with multiple electrodes and by connecting several cells in stacked configurations is a valid solution for improving these performances. In this paper, the scaling up of a single air-cathode microbial fuel cell with an internal volume of 28 mL, has been studied to estimate how its performance can be improved (1523 mW/m 3 , at 0.139 mA). Four stacked configurations and a multi-electrode unit have been designed, developed, and tested. The stacked MFCs consist of 4 reactors (28 mL × 4) that are connected in series, parallel, series/parallel, and parallel/series modes. The multi-electrode unit consists of a bigger reactor (253 mL) with 4 anodes and 4 cathodes. The performance analysis has point ed out that the multi-electrode configuration shows the lowest performances in terms of volumetric power density equal to 471 mW/m 3 at 0.345 mA and volumetric energy density of 624.2 Wh/m 3 . The stacked parallel/series configuration assures both the highest volumetric power density, equal to 2451 mW/m 3 (274.6 µW) at 0.524 mA and the highest volumetric energy density, equal to 2742.0 Wh/m 3 . These results allow affirming that to increase the electric power output of MFCs, the stacked configuration is the optimal strategy from designing point of view.

Keywords: microbial fuel cell; scaling up; stacked configurations; volumetric power density; series and parallel connection modes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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