Microbial fuel cell development and testing for implementing environmental engineering education in high schools

Abstract

Developing nations have limited or non-existent access to reliable electricity and clean water. A reliable electricity source could power valuable devices, like communication or water purification mechanisms. Finding a way to remove harmful pathogens from their wastewater is vital to the health of residents. This paper will focus on a project for the development of a microbial fuel cell (MFC) system for developing communities appropriate for use to demonstrate the principles of scientific and engineering inquiry in advanced high school classroom. The MFC system will utilize a simulated waste stream resulting from existing food processing activities and potentially provide both a modest amount of stable electricity for local use. High school students have utilized the environmental science and engineering principle that control the MFC system to design, build and test Microbial Fuel Cells made form simple materials. The MFC captures the electrons produced by the bacteria while they break down the waste in the water. The students evaluated MFC designs in the lab to find an affordable design that both efficiently generates power and effectively treats the water. The long-term goal of the project is to implement a MFC at the Songhai Center in Porto-Novo, Benin, which can then help implement the design in other developing nations through its connections with the United Nations (UN) and the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) countries. The MFC system could produce reliable electricity from waste while simultaneously cleaning water. This paper describes the processes used by students, teachers and faculty to bring environmental engineering design into the high school science classroom.