Flow Control in Microbial Fuel Cells

In Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), a mass transfer impact might be larger than expected because it not only effects the mass transfer losses (substrate flux [1, 2] and removal of waste [2]), but also effects the activation losses (mediator [3-5]) and the ohmic losses (proton transfer [6]). However, the convection/diffusion of the reactant transport from the bulk (reactant transport), which can be enhanced by increasing the concentration of reactants and the mean flow rate [7], is able to enhance the power density of the MFCs by effective flow control. Now, a common flow control method of utilizing a magnetic stirrer bar/stirring plate was used to mix the solution of anolytes [8-10]. Nonetheless, some superior flow controls by applying a micromixer or micro-channel in the MFCs, which can enhance the power performance [11] in the cases of better solution mixing and without extra power supply, will be addressed in this chapter.