The flat-plate plant-microbial fuel cell: the effect of a new design on internal resistances

Due to a growing world population and increasing welfare, energy demand worldwide is increasing. To meet the increasing energy demand in a sustainable way, new technologies are needed. The Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell (P-MFC) is a technology that could produce sustainable bio-electricity and help meeti...

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Autores principales: Helder, Marjolein, Strik, David PBTB, Hamelers, Hubertus VM, Buisman, Cees JN
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3541100/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22998846
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1754-6834-5-70
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author Helder, Marjolein
Strik, David PBTB
Hamelers, Hubertus VM
Buisman, Cees JN
author_facet Helder, Marjolein
Strik, David PBTB
Hamelers, Hubertus VM
Buisman, Cees JN
author_sort Helder, Marjolein
collection PubMed
description Due to a growing world population and increasing welfare, energy demand worldwide is increasing. To meet the increasing energy demand in a sustainable way, new technologies are needed. The Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell (P-MFC) is a technology that could produce sustainable bio-electricity and help meeting the increasing energy demand. Power output of the P-MFC, however, needs to be increased to make it attractive as a renewable and sustainable energy source. To increase power output of the P-MFC internal resistances need to be reduced. With a flat-plate P-MFC design we tried to minimize internal resistances compared to the previously used tubular P-MFC design. With the flat-plate design current and power density per geometric planting area were increased (from 0.15 A/m(2) to 1.6 A/m(2) and from 0.22 W/m(2) to and 0.44 W/m(2))as were current and power output per volume (from 7.5 A/m(3) to 122 A/m(3) and from 1.3 W/m(3) to 5.8 W/m(3)). Internal resistances times volume were decreased, even though internal resistances times membrane surface area were not. Since the membrane in the flat-plate design is placed vertically, membrane surface area per geometric planting area is increased, which allows for lower internal resistances times volume while not decreasing internal resistances times membrane surface area. Anode was split into three different sections on different depths of the system, allowing to calculate internal resistances on different depths. Most electricity was produced where internal resistances were lowest and where most roots were present; in the top section of the system. By measuring electricity production on different depths in the system, electricity production could be linked to root growth. This link offers opportunities for material-reduction in new designs. Concurrent reduction in material use and increase in power output brings the P-MFC a step closer to usable energy density and economic feasibility.
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spelling pubmed-35411002013-01-11 The flat-plate plant-microbial fuel cell: the effect of a new design on internal resistances Helder, Marjolein Strik, David PBTB Hamelers, Hubertus VM Buisman, Cees JN Biotechnol Biofuels Research Due to a growing world population and increasing welfare, energy demand worldwide is increasing. To meet the increasing energy demand in a sustainable way, new technologies are needed. The Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell (P-MFC) is a technology that could produce sustainable bio-electricity and help meeting the increasing energy demand. Power output of the P-MFC, however, needs to be increased to make it attractive as a renewable and sustainable energy source. To increase power output of the P-MFC internal resistances need to be reduced. With a flat-plate P-MFC design we tried to minimize internal resistances compared to the previously used tubular P-MFC design. With the flat-plate design current and power density per geometric planting area were increased (from 0.15 A/m(2) to 1.6 A/m(2) and from 0.22 W/m(2) to and 0.44 W/m(2))as were current and power output per volume (from 7.5 A/m(3) to 122 A/m(3) and from 1.3 W/m(3) to 5.8 W/m(3)). Internal resistances times volume were decreased, even though internal resistances times membrane surface area were not. Since the membrane in the flat-plate design is placed vertically, membrane surface area per geometric planting area is increased, which allows for lower internal resistances times volume while not decreasing internal resistances times membrane surface area. Anode was split into three different sections on different depths of the system, allowing to calculate internal resistances on different depths. Most electricity was produced where internal resistances were lowest and where most roots were present; in the top section of the system. By measuring electricity production on different depths in the system, electricity production could be linked to root growth. This link offers opportunities for material-reduction in new designs. Concurrent reduction in material use and increase in power output brings the P-MFC a step closer to usable energy density and economic feasibility. BioMed Central 2012-09-21 /pmc/articles/PMC3541100/ /pubmed/22998846 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1754-6834-5-70 Text en Copyright ©2012 Helder et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Helder, Marjolein
Strik, David PBTB
Hamelers, Hubertus VM
Buisman, Cees JN
The flat-plate plant-microbial fuel cell: the effect of a new design on internal resistances
title The flat-plate plant-microbial fuel cell: the effect of a new design on internal resistances
title_full The flat-plate plant-microbial fuel cell: the effect of a new design on internal resistances
title_fullStr The flat-plate plant-microbial fuel cell: the effect of a new design on internal resistances
title_full_unstemmed The flat-plate plant-microbial fuel cell: the effect of a new design on internal resistances
title_short The flat-plate plant-microbial fuel cell: the effect of a new design on internal resistances
title_sort flat-plate plant-microbial fuel cell: the effect of a new design on internal resistances
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3541100/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22998846
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1754-6834-5-70
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