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...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2012
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3541100 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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