Mass transfer limitation in different anode electrode surface areas on the performance of dual chamber microbial fuel cell

Abstract

In this study, the effect of different electrode surface areas on the performance of dual chamber Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) was investigated. Four different electrodes with 12, 16, 20 and 24 cm2 surface areas were tested in an MFC system. The 20 cm2 electrode generated an output power of 76.5 mW/m2 was found to be the highest among all the electrodes tested. This might be due to better interactions with microorganism and less mass transfer limitation. In addition, this indicates that the chances for attachment of bacteria and generation of electricity in larger electrode surface areas might be limited by mass transport and by higher surface area. The output power generation was then followed by the 16, 12 and 24 cm2 electrodes which generated 69.6, 64.7 and 61.25 mW/m2 electricity, respectively. © 2012 Science Publication.