Improving Performance of Direct Photosynthetic/Metabolic Micro Bio Fuel Cell (DPBFC) by Gene Manipulation of Bacteria

Abstract

In our laboratory, we have developed mediator-less direct photosynthetic/metabolic bio fuel cell (DPMFC) in which microparticles of polyaniline were adopted as electrodes to draw electrons from bacteria. We selected purple photosynthetic bacteria (PPBs) which is activated by organic compounds as well as emitting hydrogen in photosynthetic and metabolic processes for improving the electron generation efficiency of PPB by applying gene manipulation to inhibit hydrogen emission. Our hypothesis is that more electrons will be stored inside PPB if hydrogen emission is inhibited. As a result, the power density of Gene manipulated bacteria became 10μW/cm2, that is higher than the normal one