Effect of Size and Structure of a Bacteria Fuel Cell on the ElectricityProduction and Energy Conversion Rate

摘要

The direct conversion of chemical energy to electrical energy can be realized byusing microorganisms as catalyst in a microbial fuel cell. A relative big size bacteria fuel cell is investigated and compared to a smaller one constructed and tested previously. The big cell consists of a anode chamber and two cathode chambers. A packed bed of graphite particles was used as the anode and an oxygen gas diffusion electrode was used as the cathode in both devices. The cation permeable ion-exchange membrane from DuPont was used to separate anodic and cathodic chambers. Batch and self-circulation operation modes were applied in both devices. The apparent anode volume of the bigger device is 145.3 ml which is 2.7 times of the smaller cell volume (53.3 ml). The purpose of this study is to know what size of a bacteria fuel cell is suitable for the fuel cell to obtain maximum power output per volume.