Development of an Acetate- or Sugar-fed Microbial Power Generator for Military Bases.

摘要

Military missions often require the transport of fuel, such as diesel, to military bases in remote locations. The delivery of such flammable fuels is very expensive and dangerous, particularly in hostile environments. An ideal fuel source for military missions would be non-flammable, renewable, and readily available. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a new technology in which microbes convert organic compounds (sugars, alcohols, complex wastes) directly into electrical power. Microbial catalysis at the anode opens up the possibility to use non-flammable organic material as a fuel-cell fuel, not just H2, as with a conventional fuel cell. MFCs have been proven to produce significant power densities (> 1 W /m2 of electrode) at a small scale. In our work, we designed a prototype MFC as a module for future large-scale applications that is capable of producing high power densities with minimal potential losses. In order to achieve this goal, we tested various materials, MFC designs, microbial community optimization, and transport limitations. Our results show the need to better optimize ion transport in MFCs, while making significant progress towards achieving an efficient conversion of sucrose to electricity.