Microbial electrochemical systems (MESs) use microorganisms to covert the chemical energy stored in biodegradable materials to direct electric current and chemicals. Compared to traditional treatment-focused, energy-intensive environmental technologies, this emerging technology offers a new and transformative solution for integrated waste treatment and energy and resource recovery, because it o...

A sediment-type self-sustained phototrophic microbial fuel cell (MFC) was developed to generate electricity through the synergistic interaction between photosynthetic microorganisms and heterotrophic bacteria. Under illumination, the MFC continuously produced electricity without the external input of exogenous organics or nutrients. The current increased in the dark and decreased with the light...

In this study, based on a simple, compact and submersible microbial fuel cell (MFC), a novel online monitoring and alert system with self-diagnosis function was established for the activated sludge (AS) process. Such a submersible MFC utilized organic substrates and oxygen in the AS reactor as the electron donor and acceptor respectively, and could provide an evaluation on the status of the AS ...

The use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for energy harvesting devices is preferable due to their unique mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. On the other hand, microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are promising devices to recover carbon-neutral energy from the organic matters, and have been hindered with major setbacks towards commercialization. Nanoengineered CNT-based materials show remarkable e...

Combined effects of enrichment procedure and non-fermentable acetate or fermentable glucose on system performance and bacterial community for pentachlorophenol (PCP) degradation in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were determined in this study. Co-substrate and PCP were added into MFCs either simultaneously or sequentially. Simultaneous addition with glucose (simultaneous-glucose) achieved the short...

H as this happened to you? You have a layover between flights, would like to use your computer and cell phone, but both sets of batteries are drained and the nearby electrical outlets are being used. What if you could instead recharge your electronic devices with a little sugar from the nearby coffee stand? With help from electricity-producing microorganisms, known as electricigens, some day yo...

To improve the reliability and the energy efficiency of datacenters, as well as to reduce infrastructure costs and environmental impacts, we demonstrated and evaluated the use of a 10 kW Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) stack and system for powering the servers in a data center. In this study, we designed, tested and demonstrated a PEMFC system as a Distributed Generation (DG) prime m...

Improving electricity generation from wastewater (DW) by using olive mill wastewater (OMW) was evaluated using single-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFC). Doing so single-chambers air cathode MFCs with platinum anode were fed with domestic wastewater (DW) alone and mixed with OMW at the ratio of 14:1 (w/w). MFCs fed with DW+OMW gave 0.38 V at 1 kΩ, while power density from polarization curve was...

Power density curves for microbial fuel cells (MFCs) often show power overshoot, resulting in inaccurate estimation of MFC performance at high current densities. The reasons for power overshoot are not well understood, but biofilm acclimation and development are known factors. In order to better explore the reasons for power overshoot, exoelectrogenic biofilms were developed at four different a...