ENERGETIC PERFORMANCE OF MICROBIAL SOLAR CELLS

摘要

Microbial solar cells (MSCs) harvest solar energy to produce electricity. MSCs use higher plants or photoautotrophic microorganisms to utilize solar energy, and use electrochemically active bacteria in a microbial fuel cell (MFC) to generate electrical current 1. MSCs are categorized according to the way solar energy is harvested and/or transferred to the microbial fuel cell. Plant microbial fuel cells (Plant-MFCs) are systems in which the plant roots directly fuel the electrochemically active bacteria 2-4. Other MSCs have phototrophic biofilms grown on electrodes to produce electricity 5. Also, there are MSCs which use externally produced biomass as electron donor for the MFC. These systems grow algae in photobioreactors, harvest phyto- and zooplankton from the coastal marine ecosystems or use land produced energy crops 6-8. Here we overview the energetic expectations and performance of these systems.