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Performance assessment of stacked air-cathode microbial fuel cells under series and parallel electrical connections

Authors :
Di Micco Simona
De Falco Pasquale
Minutillo Mariagiovanna
Bracale Antonio
Caramia Pierluigi
Gifuni Angelo
Grassini Giuseppe
Source :
E3S Web of Conferences, Vol 334, p 08011 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
EDP Sciences, 2022.

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are playing an important role in the context of sustainable energy development. They represent a sustainable approach to harvest electricity from biodegradable materials. However, harvesting energy from MFCs represents a critical issue because of the low output voltage and power produced. Realizing stacked configurations may involve an increase in MFCs performances in terms of output voltage, current and electric power. In this paper, two stacked configurations under different electrical connection modes have been designed, developed, modeled and tested. The stacked MFCs consist of 4 reactors (28 mL x4) that are connected in series, and parallel-series modes. Three different tests have been carried out, which involves: 1) performing the polarization and power curves by applying decreasing resistances; 2) assessment of the electric behavior of each reactor over time at a fixed resistance, 3) performing the polarization and power curves by applying increasing resistances. Moreover, a numerical model for predicting the transient behavior of the electrical quantities for one reactor, has been developed and validated by using the experimental data. As expected, the results highlighted that the parallel-series configuration assures the highest volumetric power density compared to the series configuration, reaching the maximum value of 1248.5 mW/m3 (139.8 µW) at 0.291 mA. Eventually, by comparing the numerical and the experimental data, it has been demonstrated that the developed model is able to predict the reactor’s electrical trend with a good accuracy.

Subjects

Subjects :
Environmental sciences
GE1-350

Details

Language :
English, French
ISSN :
22671242
Volume :
334
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
E3S Web of Conferences
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.1048e36ee5aa4a00b065ad16439b8f14
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202233408011